Written question asked by Greg Knight (Conservative) on Thursday, 1 March 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 March 2012. It was answered by James Paice (Conservative) on Thursday, 8 March 2012 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Meat: Ritual Slaughter

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take steps to make the halal slaughter process more humane; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: The Government are committed to ensuring a secure, environmentally sustainable and healthy supply of food with improved standards of animal welfare. This includes the supply of meat slaughtered in accordance with religious rites. Members of the Jewish and Muslim communities are aware of this and I have had discussions with them and sought their views, about improving the welfare of animals slaughtered for religious purposes without stunning.We do not to intend to ban religious slaughter, and we respect the rights of religious groups to practice their beliefs. Directive 93/119 on the welfare of animals at slaughter and killing will be replaced by regulation 1099/2009 in January 2013. This regulation allows slaughter without stunning in accordance with religious rites to continue. However individual member states can impose stricter rules in relation to religious slaughter if they wish and I am currently considering what might be done to improve welfare in this context. We will be consulting formally on implementation of regulation 1099/2009 in England later this year.

Secondary information