Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control
(asked on 10th October 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total cost of the badger cull in England in each year since 2012, including (1) costs to government departments, (2) costs to farmers, and (3) policing costs.
Badger cull operation costs incurred by HM Government are published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-government-badger-control-costs.
Badger control costs | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
Government costs (excl. police) | £6.3m | £3.1m | £1.8m | £2.4m | £2.6m | £2.1m | £2.2m | £2.2m |
Policing costs | £3.5m | £1.4m | £1.8m | £3m | £4m | £3.2m | £3.66m | £4m |
Total | £9.8m | £4.5m | £3.6m | £5.4m | £6.6m | £5.3m | £5.86m | £6.2m |
Number of areas | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 21 | 32 | 43 | 54 |
Total costs per area | £4.9m | £2.3m | £1.2m | £0.5m | £0.3m | £0.17m | £0.14m | £0.14m |
Badger cull operations did not take place in 2012, therefore no costs were incurred that year.
Badger cull operations are an industry-led initiative, therefore the costs to industry are not published or known by HM Government.
HM Government costs for 2021 will be published in due course.
To put the badger cull operational costs into perspective, below are the annual compensation costs for cattle culled to control spread of bovine TB during the same period.
Cattle compensation costs | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| £31.4m | £30.5m | £29.9m | £27m | £37m | £35.3m | £32.2m | £30.8m |