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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what process is in place to select which culled badger carcasses are forensically examined; and who is responsible for selecting which carcasses will be sent to the cull monitors.

Natural England, as the licensing authority, monitors the culls to assess compliance with licence conditions and Best Practice Guides. If, as part of this, Natural England identifies a compliance issue then Natural England may request that a carcass is subject to a post-mortem examination by exception. This was done on one occasion in 2016.

Additionally, during 2013 to 2015, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carried out post-mortem examinations of badger carcasses that were dispatched by controlled shooting. Carcasses were selected for examination at random. Further details on monitoring and post-mortem examinations are published on GOV.UK