asked Her Majesty's Government:How many small and medium-sized abattoirs have ceased to operate for each month since January 1999; and how many of these have had their licences revoked. [HL95]
Abattoirs are licensed as either low or full throughput. There is no separate classification for medium-sized abattoirs.Abattoirs may cease to operate, temporarily or permanently, for a variety of reasons, such as seasonal closure, refurbishment, receivership, surrender or revocation of licence. We only record closures due to licence surrender or revocation. However information on other types of closures has been obtained indirectly from the records of hygiene assessments which the Meat Hygiene Service carries out monthly in abattoirs. These indicate which abattoirs could not be assessed in a particular month because they were not operating.The following table shows, for each month from January 1999 to November 2000, the number of abattoirs in the United Kingdom:
Red meat
| White meat
| |||||||
Full throughput
| Low throughput
| Full throughput
| Low throughput
| |||||
Month
| Not operating
| Licence revoked
| Not operating
| Licence revoked
| Not operating
| Licence revoked
| Not operating
| Licence revoked
|
| August | 15 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 | — |
| September | 14 | — | 19 | — | 6 | — | 5 | — |
| October | 14 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 6 | — | 5 | — |
| November | 14 | — | 19 | — | 7 | — | 7 | — |
1Information is not available because hygiene assessment system scores were not published in those months due to changes to the system in July 1999. | ||||||||