Bovine TB: Supplementary badger disease control

Overview

We are consulting on a proposal to license a supplementary form of badger control after a cull has been successfully completed over at least four years.

The aim of the proposal is to help prolong the regional cattle disease benefits achieved by a successfully completed culling operation.

The proposal is part of the Government’s TB Strategy to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (TB) in England which is an adaptive, evidence-based, long-term approach to disease control and the proposal complements the other measures within the Strategy.

To achieve the TB Strategy aim of national TB freedom by 2038, we need to ensure that our range of cattle and biosecurity measures are supported by continuing, effective management of the reservoir of disease in badgers.

Please read the Consultation Document before you consider the questions in this online survey. The document sets out the proposal in full along with background information and a summary of the available evidence and economic impacts. You can find the document here https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb/supplementary-badger-disease-control/supporting_documents/Consultation%20Document.pdf 

Why your views matter

We are consulting on the Guidance to Natural England (NE) that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would publish to set out the licensing criteria that NE, as the delegated licensing authority, must have regard to when considering such licence applications.

What happens next

Animal health policy, including TB, is devolved. This consultation therefore applies to England only.

This consultation is about badger control policy. We recognise that there is interest in badger control and are therefore consulting publicly on our proposals. The deadline for responses is 10 February 2017. 

We have written to principal organisations that we believe have a direct interest in the proposals to raise awareness about this consultation and inviting them to respond. We hope this will help ensure a wide range of informed views can be considered. Anyone else who would like to respond to the consultation is of course free to do so. Each response will be considered in its own right and on its own merit. 

You can respond in one of three ways. Online by completing the questionnaire at: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/; by email to bTBengage@defra.gsi.gov.uk; or by writing to us at Bovine TB Programme, Defra, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

Our preferred method is online because it is the fastest and most cost-effective way for us to collate, analyse and summarise responses. If you require a different format, please let us know. 

Every response will be read and considered by the policy team in Defra in taking forward our work. We intend to publish a summary of responses to this consultation. It will not be practical to describe every response in detail.