The Government acknowledges the important role that small abattoirs play in rural economies and the benefits to animal welfare that reduced journey times to slaughter can have. We are fully committed to working with industry to ensure that the UK maintains its high-quality slaughtering facilities within a robust and competitive market. We will continue to work closely with small abattoirs on the range of complex issues that they are facing. Defra chairs the Small Abattoirs Working Group, which brings together Defra policy teams, the Food Standards Agency, the Rural Payments Agency, and industry representatives. The department has initiated a series of smaller sub-groups to enable detailed discussions to take place with the recently established Abattoir Sector Group. Issues discussed to date include: the new Livestock Information Programme; the potential for streamlining administrative and regulatory burdens on small abattoirs; and ways to ensure greater co- ordination across government agencies and abattoirs to maintain and strengthen the UK’s high standards in food hygiene, biosecurity, and animal welfare. The Food Standards Agency’s Operational Transformation Programme and implementation of a Future Delivery Model was endorsed by its Board at a public meeting in September 2021. The Programme is progressing with several activities underway to transform current practices and systems. The Food Standards Agency continues to work with stakeholders to identify opportunities to modernise the delivery of official controls and to take a more proportionate approach, including exploring the use of flexibilities within existing legislation and reducing administrative burdens on abattoirs. One of the Government Response: Moving animals across borders 15 most beneficial flexibilities for small abattoirs is an increase in the threshold for “low- capacity establishments” (to 5% of national throughput) that can then benefit from reduced levels of FSA presence and cost. This is a “Member State” flexibility in retained OCR legislation but requires agreement with the European Commission before it can be implemented due to the potential impact in exports. The FSA is working with the Abattoir Sector Group on a pilot project which is designed to reduce some of the administrative burdens on small abattoirs by streamlining administrative processes. The Government supports innovative solutions to funding issues for small abattoirs. We are exploring what future support might be made available to the sector, for example, through the ‘Adding Value’ theme of the new Farming Investment Fund. This theme is intended to support producers wanting to process and add value to their products. Further details will be made available in due course.