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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2025 to 94315, whether planned changes to the Protection of Badgers Act would permit the killing of badgers solely for development purposes.

The changes to the Protection of Badgers Act (PoBA) effected by the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would permit licences for the purpose of preserving public health or safety or for reasons of overriding public interest, to kill or take badgers, or to interfere with a badger sett, within an area specified in the licence. This purpose is derived from the list of eligible purposes for an exemption under the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, with which any species mitigation licence must comply. It is also consistent with similar provisions for other protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.

Overriding public interest can be used to mean development and infrastructure activities but can accommodate other activities such as maintenance or repair work.

Licences that permit the killing of badgers are already available for other purposes, such as scientific or educational purposes, preventing the spread of disease, or preventing serious damage to land, crops, poultry or other form of property.

This provision will be subject to strict safeguards, as the Government is also legislating that any licence issued under the PoBA must meet the strict tests required by the Bern Convention: that there is no other satisfactory solution and that the grant of the licence is not detrimental to the survival of any population of badgers. Killing badgers would therefore remain exceptional, only permissible under strict conditions, and would not become routine for development purposes.