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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an estimate of the levels of tuberculosis testing taking place across the UK.

Defra publishes official national statistics on tuberculosis in cattle (i.e. bovine TB) in Great Britain on a quarterly basis. These include, among other headline statistics, the actual numbers (not estimates) of TB tests performed in cattle herds and on individual animals. The latest quarterly release of these national statistics was published on 8 March and contained data up to the end of 2022. This is publicly available at GOV.UK.

Specifically, the monthly and annual numbers of all types of cattle TB tests, broken down by country of GB and by bovine TB risk regions of England and Wales, are available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1140731/GB_bTB_Statistics_by_Country_and_Area_08mar23.ods

For a county-by-county breakdown of the monthly and annual numbers of TB tests performed on cattle please go to:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain

The next quarterly set of the national bovine TB statistics for GB is scheduled to be released on 14 June.

Bovine TB statistics for Northern Ireland are compiled separately by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland and can be downloaded from the following link:

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/tuberculosis-statistics-northern-ireland