Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many slaughterhouses were (a) suspended and (b) permanently closed due to breaches of animal welfare regulations in each calendar year from 2015 to 2025; how many (i) improvement notices, (ii) formal warnings, (iii) prosecutions and (iv) other enforcement actions were issued to slaughterhouses for animal welfare breaches in each of those years; and how many site inspections were carried out by the Food Standards Agency in each year over the same period.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
In 2015, two slaughterhouses had approval withdrawn. In 2016, one slaughterhouse had approval withdrawn. In 2017, one slaughterhouse had approval withdrawn and two had approval suspended.
The reasons for the withdrawals and suspensions between 2015 and 2017 are no longer retained. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) retains approval documents of establishments for up to six years beyond their closure.
In 2020, one slaughterhouse had approval suspended for welfare concerns. In 2025, two slaughterhouses had approval withdrawn for non-compliances, which included welfare concerns.
The following table shows the number of formal warnings issued to business operators and plant operatives following investigation by the FSA into alleged animal welfare offences at approved slaughterhouses, from 2015 to 2024:
Year | Formal warning to business operator | Formal warning to plant operatives |
2015 | 2 | 0 |
2016 | 1 | 1 |
2017 | 7 | 6 |
2018 | 3 | 2 |
2019 | 5 | 5 |
2020 | 1 | 0 |
2021 | 1 | 1 |
2022 | 1 | 0 |
2023 | 0 | 0 |
2024 | 0 | 0 |
In addition, the following table shows the number of prosecution cases and the number of business operators and plant operatives convicted following investigations undertaken by the FSA into alleged animal welfare offences at approved slaughterhouses, from 2015 to 2024:
Year | Prosecution cases | Business operators convicted | Plant operatives convicted |
2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2016 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
2017 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
2018 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
2019 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2021 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
2022 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
2023 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
2024 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Improvement notices and other enforcement action over the 10 year period is included in open data published quarterly by the FSA, and available at the following link:
The FSA has a presence at every site during processing hours. To complement the inspections carried out by official veterinarians and veterinary auditors, the Welfare Assurance Team carries out welfare-themed inspections across all operating plants in England and Wales. Similar to the veterinary auditors, the frequency of these inspections depends upon the previous inspection outcome. It is not possible to confirm how many site inspections were undertaken specifically on animal welfare grounds over this period.
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