Let me assure you that the Government shares my own commitment to maintaining high standards of animal welfare at slaughter, and there are strict legal requirements in place. In slaughterhouses, these requirements are monitored and enforced by Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency to ensure that animals are spared unnecessary suffering, distress or pain during the slaughter process.
CCTV, as with other monitoring methods, does have limitations and relies on businesses to monitor their operations appropriately. The Government is unconvinced of the need for further legislation at this time, but is keeping the need for CCTV under review.
As part of this ongoing consideration the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, the body that advises the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved administrations on farm animal welfare, has reviewed the effectiveness of CCTV and other methods for monitoring and verifying the welfare of farm animals in slaughterhouses.
The Committee reported on 3 February and while it did not recommend legislation to make CCTV mandatory, it did express the view that CCTV can be beneficial to animal welfare at slaughter and that all assurance scheme operators, food retailers and others in the food chain should require that it be installed in slaughterhouses associated with them. I have been assured that the Government will give this full consideration.