Bovine TB

Lord Hanson of Flint Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Spelman]

My hon. Friend is right about other parts of the world trying to eradicate TB in the cattle population. Possums had to be culled in New Zealand, feral buffalo in Australia, and white-tailed deer in America; and badgers in Northern Ireland had to be culled in order to reduce the rate of infection in the wildlife population. No country has succeeded in eradicating the disease without doing that.

[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will know that in Wales a legal challenge in June stopped the badger cull, as a result of which an advisory committee on the science has been established. What contingency plans has she made for a legal challenge to this announcement? If the Welsh Assembly’s assessment is that the science shows that culling does not work, will she revisit her decision?

[Mrs Spelman]

One of the reasons we have taken our time to weigh up this decision carefully is that there is, as we acknowledge, a risk of a legal challenge. We are piloting reduction by controlled shooting and evaluating the results in part to establish the evidence base for our decision. I have done all that I can to deal with a potential legal challenge. The pilots themselves will prove whether the method is effective and humane.