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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of levels of bovine tuberculosis.

Bovine TB is a devolved policy matter.

The latest bovine TB statistics published on GOV.UK, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb, continue to show a gradually improving picture in most headline indicators for England overall and particularly in the High Risk Area and the Edge Area. In 2023 the lowest annual incidence of TB in cattle herds in England was recorded since 2007. In the Low Risk Area, the incidence and prevalence of TB in cattle herds remain very low and stable.

During the 2023 calendar year, just over 20,000 cattle were slaughtered for TB-related reasons in England, having peaked at 34,500 in 2018.