Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of (1) sheep, and (2) cattle, which were slaughtered without prior stunning in the last year for which figures are available, split by (a) Kosher, and (b) Halal slaughter; and what percentage of UK slaughterhouses are licensed to carry out such slaughter.

The most recent assessment was carried out by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), on behalf of Defra and the Welsh Government, over a one-week period in 2018. During that period, the numbers slaughtered without stunning were 60,748 sheep by halal and 222 sheep by Shechita; and 214 cattle by halal and 164 cattle by Shechita

Religious slaughter can only be carried out in an FSA approved slaughterhouse but there is no separate licensing of slaughterhouses carrying out religious slaughter.