CCTV recording will be mandatory in slaughterhouses throughout England from 2018.

Following consultation with industry bodies and professionals the government believes that mandatory CCTV recording in slaughterhouses will improve animal welfare standards in England's approved slaughterhouses.

The government also recognises that other benefits will include improved in-house assessment of operations, effective staff training and increased public confidence in the meat industry and its adherence to high animal welfare standards.

During the consultation one farmer respondent said that poor welfare in the slaughterhouse led to poor meat quality so it was in the industry’s interest to work to high animal welfare standards.

The overwhelming proportion of respondents that were in favour of mandatory CCTV to protect animal welfare.

The government has confirmed that legislation will be put in place that ensures unfettered access to CCTV recordings for monitoring, verification and enforcement purposes by those who require it for these purposes. However, it refused to appoint an additional independent monitoring body to consider the CCTV footage.

It has been decided that there will be a 90 day retention period of CCTV recordings so that Official Veterinarians (OV) can carry out a timely review of footage in order to address any welfare incidents and for decisions to be made regarding advisory or enforcement action to be taken. This period of time will also enable OV to double check if there has been a longer history of practices, patterns of behaviour or systemic failures which were hitherto unnoticed.

The outline proposal relates solely to England as animal welfare policy is devolved.