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

To ask His Majesty's Government what record they have of the annual financial cost of the badger culls in England over the past five years, and when a written value for money analysis of that cost was last undertaken.

The cost of undertaking badger culling is paid for by industry. The Government pays for the licensing operation and monitoring, as well as the cost of policing culls.

Information on the Government badger control costs for 2022 and previous years is available at GOV.UK. The Government badger control costs for 2023 will be published in due course.

The most recent value for money analysis of the badger control policy was published on 28 October 2022. This can be found attached to this answer.