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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to his Department's press release entitled Government to end badger cull with new TB eradication strategy, published on 30 August 2024, what progress he has made on the TB eradication plan; and when it will be published.

We have started work on a comprehensive new bovine TB (bTB) eradication strategy to drive down bTB rates in cattle, improve farmers’ livelihoods, and to end the badger cull by the end of this parliament.

To ensure it benefits from the latest evidence, we have reconvened a panel of experts, led by Professor Sir Charles Godfray, to independently consider independently any substantive new evidence that builds on the 2018 strategy review. The panel expects to report its findings back to Defra from late June 2025.

The strategy is being co-designed with farmers, vets, scientists, and conservationists. It will consider a range of measures including boosting cattle testing, reducing the spread of disease through cattle movements, and deploying badger vaccination on a wider, landscape scale.

The existing Bovine TB Partnership for England has been re-structured to form a Steering Group that is overseeing the co-design of the strategy, and topic specific Working Groups who will develop recommendations for the Steering Group. The Steering Group are aiming to develop a draft strategy for Ministers to consider by spring 2026.