May 29th, 2024
2 mins
The Welsh Government have announced that the ‘Mandatory Use of Closed-Circuit Television in Slaughterhouses (Wales) Regulations 2024’ will require CCTV cameras to be installed in all slaughterhouses in areas where live animals are unloaded, kept, handled, stunned, and killed.
This is a Programme for Government commitment and is included in the Animal Welfare Plan for Wales, which seeks to maintain and improve standards of welfare for all kept animals.
Most slaughterhouses in Wales already have CCTV. This requirement ensures all are covered, supporting consumer confidence that welfare standards are being delivered.
Requirements to install and operate a CCTV system and keep CCTV footage and information will come into force on 1st June 2024.
This gives a six-month period where the Food Standards Agency will work with slaughterhouse operators to ensure they are compliant with the requirements, ahead of the Regulations being enforced on 1st December.
A twelve-week public consultation was published on 14 November 2022 and closed for responses on 6 February 2023. A summary of the responses to the consultation was published in May 2023. There were 16,000 responses to the consultation and the overwhelming majority agreed CCTV cameras should be installed in all approved slaughterhouses in Wales.
