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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the Food Standards Agency’s recommendation that all slaughterhouses should have CCTV cameras installed.

The Food Standards Agency has a long standing policy of support for the installation of CCTV in slaughterhouses as a tool to protect animal welfare.

The Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) was commissioned to produce an independent assessment of the benefits of CCTV in slaughter houses and its report was published in February 2015. It concluded that CCTV can offer some real benefits but it cannot replace the need for businesses to have proper monitoring procedures in place.

This is an issue which we are keeping under review.