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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; whether he plans to continue with the cull of badgers in Derbyshire; and for what reason 1,675 badgers were to be culled.

The Government has committed to ending badger culling by the next General Election. In contrast, in the past decade over 230,000 badgers were culled.

On 30 August, Defra announced that we will be working on a comprehensive new TB eradication strategy to end the badger cull and drive down bovine TB rates to protect farmers’ livelihoods.

Badger culling is licensed under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease. The figure quoted in the question refers to the maximum number of badgers to be culled under supplementary badger control licences in Derbyshire. In previous years, the total number of badgers culled has been closer to the minimum, which this year is set at 425, rather than the maximum.