Bovine TB: Consultation on revised guidance for licensing badger control areas.

Overview

The Guidance to Natural England currently states that only ten new areas may be licensed under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 for badger disease control each year (“the ten area limit”).  The proposal on which we seek views is the removal of this limit, allowing Natural England to issue licences to more than ten areas each year. We also want to make it clearer that when deciding how many licences to issue, NE is able to take into account the resources that it has available in order to ensure effective assurance and administration of the licences.

Please note: we are holding a separate consultation on proposals to introduce licensed badger control to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the Low Risk Area (England). You can find this consultation here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb/badger-control-in-low-risk-area-england

What happens next

The responses received to this consultation will be evaluated and will used as evidence to decide whether to remove the ten area cap.