Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to restricting the UK’s export of non-stun slaughter sheep meat as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council–United Kingdom free trade agreement negotiations.

The Government shares the public’s high regard for animal welfare, and nothing in the proposed GCC agreement will change our animal welfare standards.

All slaughter of animals for export of meat – whether from animals slaughtered with or without stunning – must comply with UK rules on animal welfare. Legislation requires that all animals must be stunned before slaughter to make them unconscious and insensible to pain. The only exception to this is when animals are slaughtered in accordance with religious rites, for the food of Muslims and Jews.