Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is on utilising the skills of animal welfare charities and voluntary organisations to monitor CCTV in slaughterhouses.

George Eustice

The Government welcomed the recent Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) Opinion on CCTV in slaughterhouses. FAWC did not recommend using animal welfare charities or voluntary organisations to monitor CCTV in slaughterhouses.

However, the report highlighted that CCTV was a useful management tool for food business operators and the Government is keen to see the minority of abattoirs still without any form of CCTV move quickly to voluntarily adopt its use. We welcome the recent industry statement which addresses one of the FAWC recommendations that the slaughter industry should produce a common set of good practice protocols for the review, evaluation and use of CCTV footage.

.