PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control (16 March 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 27 January 2021, HCWS738 on Bovine TB, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of cutting short extant badger culling licences at the same time as he plans to ban new licences from being issued in 2022.

Asked by:
Darren Jones (Labour)

In January 2021 we launched a consultation on the next phase of bovine TB eradication strategy as part of our objective for TB-free status in England by 2038. The consultation includes proposals to stop issuing intensive cull licences for new areas after 2022 and could see new four-year licences, after two-years of culling, be revoked after a progress evaluation by the Chief Veterinary Officer.

The consultation also includes proposals to restrict supplementary badger control licences to two years and to prohibit the issuing of new licences for areas licensed after 2020.

The consultation closes on 24 March 2021 and a government response and next steps will be published thereafter. Changes to the intensive and supplementary cull licences will be implemented by Natural England through revised guidance from Defra, which we are also consulting on. Details can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb-2020/eradication-of-btb-england/.

Answered by:
Victoria Prentis (Conservative)
24 March 2021