Halal abattoirs serving strict Muslims are much more likely to have poor hygiene and animal welfare than non-religious ones, Telegraph analysis shows.

The slaughterhouses, which slit conscious animals’ throats to kill them in accordance with Islamic rites, were almost three times more likely to be given negative inspections than others, according to data from the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Common causes for concern cited by inspectors were substandard hygiene practices, poor animal welfare and risks of cross contamination. In one instance, chickens were “kicked and thrown”, and in another animals were abused, with workers appearing to mock the animals before they were slaughtered.

The FSA data reveals that in the past decade, 26.9 per cent of inspections of slaughterhouses permitted to perform religious non-stun slaughter concluded with a rating of “improvement necessary” or “urgent improvement necessary”. This compares with just 10.2 per cent of all other establishments.

UK law requires that all livestock are stunned before slaughter to render them insensible to pain at the time of killing, using methods such as an electric shock or gassing with carbon dioxide.

However, UK and EU legislation provide an exemption for animals slaughtered in accordance with religious rites.

Analysis of the watchdog data also shows that just 11.3 per cent of inspections saw religious abattoirs awarded the highest rating of “good”. This is in comparison to 32 per cent of non-faith-affiliated abattoirs.

The Telegraph analysis looked at each individual audit of 38 non-stun, religious slaughter-houses since 2014, although some have closed over the period. Of these, just one was easily identified as kosher, Kosher Poultry Limited in Manchester, which was graded “generally satisfactory” in every audit.

Halal abattoirs highlighted for inadequate standards include: