May 22 2018

Dear Petitions Committee,

Thank you for your continued interest in this issue, and for contacting the Minister once again about plans for independently monitored CCTV in Welsh slaughterhouses.

We are heartened that the Minister also supports the installation and use of CCTV, and will make available an investment package in order to help improve welfare in slaughterhouses.

As you know, after years of seeing the voluntary approach peak and plateau in England, the Government stepped in, and now all English slaughterhouses must install CCTV cameras throughout their premises and make the footage available to the regulators. The Scottish Government has launched a consultation which proposes the same.

While we welcome the Minister’s plans to help smaller Welsh slaughterhouses improve welfare, we feel certain that in order to detect and deter abuses and poor practice – and to achieve full CCTV coverage across the sector as well as throughout individual slaughterhouses – legislation will be required. We see this move very much as a first step towards that.

We wait with interest the details of the Food Business Investment package, which we note will be announced before the summer recess, and we will continue to press for full CCTV coverage across all Welsh slaughterhouses, with the footage monitored by an independent body that has welfare as its priority.

Thank you again.

Kate Fowler