Written Question·Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs·UIN 109676

Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare

Tabled: 29 January 2026
Answered: 3 February 2026
Named Day

Question

Adam Dance

Liberal DemocratYeovil

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to increase the proportion of livestock in the UK that are pre-stunned before slaughter.

Answer

Dame Angela Eagle
Regulations require that animals must be stunned prior to slaughter so that they are unconscious and insensible to pain. The only exception to the requirement to stun is where animals are slaughtered in accordance with religious rites. The Government woul...

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