Bovine TB Control Strategy for England: Government Response
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dame Angela Eagle)
I wish to update the House regarding the Government’s response to the co-designed bovine TB control strategy for England, which was published on 5 November 2026.
For too many farmers and their families, bovine TB has brought uncertainty, stress and financial hardship. I have enormous admiration for the resilience shown by those affected.
This Government believe that no farming family should have to accept this disease as an unavoidable fact of life and livelihood. This marks an important step towards making that vision a reality.
The co-designed strategy published in June this year sets out a long-term vision for England to achieve officially bovine TB-free status by 2038, and the actions needed to get there. Since its publication, officials have been considering its recommendations in detail. Taken together, these recommendations respond directly to the challenge set by Professor Sir Charles Godfray and his expert review panel to bring a step change in the urgency and focus of efforts to tackle bovine TB.
Realising this vision is about much more than reducing disease. It is about giving farmers greater confidence to invest, innovate and plan for the future.
Therefore, we have formally adopted the co-designed strategy in full and are endorsing its overall direction of travel as our long-term plan to tackle bovine TB in England.
Work is already under way to deliver several of the strategy’s recommendations.
This includes:
continued development of a deployable cattle vaccine and the companion “DIVA” skin test to detect infected amongst vaccinated animals. The final phase of DIVA field trials is complete, and a contract has been awarded to manufacture DIVA test reagents to good manufacturing practice standards. We will continue to progress these necessary steps to achieve domestic licensing requirements and international recognition. This progress is underpinned by the strategy’s ambition to deploy cattle vaccination by 2030;
a pilot to explore the use of privately funded ancillary TB blood testing to identify infection earlier and support risk-based disease management;
expansion of Government-funded mandatory interferon-gamma blood testing, helping to detect infection sooner, reduce breakdown duration and minimise consequential costs for farmers;
roll-out of badger vaccination in priority areas through the newly contracted badger vaccination field force, with three new vaccination areas already established and more to follow in 2027 and 2028; and
the introduction later this month of a new Government-funded scheme to collect and test found-dead badgers.
In our published response, we set out how we would welcome the co-design steering group using its first delivery plan to explore how compensation paid for the compulsory slaughter of cattle could better support shared responsibility and effective disease-risk reduction while maintaining confidence in the system.
Affected farmers already face significant financial and emotional impacts beyond those covered by compensation. At the same time, compensation represents a significant cost to taxpayers. We owe it to all to consider whether these arrangements remain appropriate, affordable and sustainable.
The co-designed strategy is built on a clear principle: lasting solutions are most effective when they are developed with those most directly affected.
That principle must remain at the heart of the next phase of bovine TB control.
That is why we will also take forward the recommendation to establish a new joint industry-Government board to replace the existing Bovine TB Partnership for England, launching a public appointments process for board members before Christmas, and establishing the board at the earliest opportunity in 2027.
We know that bovine TB will not wait for these new arrangements, so to maintain momentum, we have asked the existing co-design steering group to continue its work and develop the first delivery plan. That plan, to be published in late spring 2027, will be considered and endorsed by the new industry-Government board and set out the priority actions for delivery, including which recommendations will be taken forward first, how, and by whom they will be delivered.
The publication of the co-designed strategy in June was an important milestone. By formally adopting it as the Government’s official strategy, we carry through the momentum created by all those who contributed their time, expertise and experience to this work.
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