Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

(asked on 4th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the maximum number of years is that badger culling could continue in England under the consultation proposals on eradicating bovine TB announced on 27 January 2020; and what the maximum number of badgers is that could be culled during this time period.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 9th February 2021

Under the proposals in the current consultation, in the years 2021 and 2022, new intensive cull licences will be issued for four years. They could be revoked however, further to a progress evaluation by the Chief Veterinary Officer after two or three years.

The consultation also proposes to restrict new applications for Supplementary Badger Cull (SBC) to a maximum of two years for areas licensed for Intensive Culling (IC) up to 2020 and prohibits the issuing of SBC licenses for areas licensed for IC after 2020. SBCs licenses can already be revoked following a progress evaluation or on reasonable grounds under the Defra “Guidance to Natural England Licences to kill or take badgers for the purpose of preventing the spread of bovine TB under section 10(2)(a) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992”.

We do not yet know how many applications there would be, nor where they would be located. Therefore, we cannot predict the maximum number of badgers that could be culled in this time period.

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