Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what process is in place to select which culled badger carcasses are forensically examined; and who is responsible for selecting which carcasses will be sent to the cull monitors.
Answered by George Eustice
Natural England, as the licensing authority, monitors the culls to assess compliance with licence conditions and Best Practice Guides. If, as part of this, Natural England identifies a compliance issue then Natural England may request that a carcass is subject to a post-mortem examination by exception. This was done on one occasion in 2016.
Additionally, during 2013 to 2015, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carried out post-mortem examinations of badger carcasses that were dispatched by controlled shooting. Carcasses were selected for examination at random. Further details on monitoring and post-mortem examinations are published on GOV.UK
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which M. Bovis vaccines for bovine animals the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency has access to for the purpose of trials; and what plans her Department has to run bovine vaccination trials.
Answered by George Eustice
BCG (the attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis used worldwide to vaccinate people against TB) remains the only viable option at present for vaccination of cattle against TB.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (formerly Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratory Agency) has shown a protective effect of BCG in cattle and developed delivery regimes for cattle. However, a DIVA test to differentiate vaccinated from infected animals must also be developed, as vaccination with BCG can interfere with the diagnostic tests routinely used to identify TB-infected cattle. APHA has developed such a test and further studies are ongoing to determine whether this will be suitable for use in the field. Once this has been determined, cattle vaccine field trials could be taken forward.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to develop an oral M. Bovis vaccine for badgers; and what funding from the public purse has been made available for its development.
Answered by George Eustice
Since 2009 Defra has spent £15 million on oral badger vaccine development, using BCG (the attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis used worldwide to vaccinate people against TB). The Animal and Plant Health Agency has identified palatable bait and practical field deployment strategies. The immunity conferred by oral vaccination of badgers with BCG tends to be more variable than that resulting from the injectable formulation of the vaccine. Therefore, current studies are focusing on producing a safe, effective and affordable vaccine which provides consistent protection when eaten by badgers.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for her policies on flooding and land use of the Green Alliance Policy Insight of November 2016, entitled Smarter flood risk management in England.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Government notes the Green Alliance report’s focus on flood prevention, including the use of natural measures and the whole catchment approach.
A combination of measures are needed to manage flood risk, including upstream activities to store or slow flood waters. The current Countryside Stewardship Scheme includes land management measures that help to prevent flooding. Our exit from the EU provides an opportunity to consider how best future agriculture and environmental policy can contribute to flood risk management. The Government recently announced £15m specifically for natural flood management schemes across England. This builds on demonstration projects at Pickering in North Yorkshire, Holnicote in Somerset and Upper Derwent, Derbyshire.
They demonstrated that natural measures can be effective in helping to manage flood risk at a catchment scale, slowing the flow of water and reducing local impacts when carefully incorporated into a wider suite of catchment measures, but were unlikely to offer an alternative to conventional defences in areas of greatest risk.
However, we refute the assertion that twice as much is spent on dealing with the after-effects of a flood than is spent on hard flood defences. In 2014/15, the year the report is referring to with respect to hard defences, of the £802.6m spent on flood risk management, £145m was for flood response and repair costs and £657.6m for routine flood risk management measures.
Moreover, in our current 6-year capital programme, we are investing £2.5 billion over six years on flood defences (up until 2021). This is a real terms increase in capital investment. We are exceeding our manifesto commitment by building 1,500 new flood defence schemes that will better protect 300,000 more homes.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have taken the training course on humane shooting of badgers; and how many such people have failed the course.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given on 25 October, PQ UIN 48569.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the number of people who have undertaken (a) training and (b) refresher training approved by her Department on humane shooting of badgers in each of the last three years.
Answered by George Eustice
Natural England does not hold figures for the number of operators who have been trained to undertake licensed action but does know how many are trained and are licensed. Industry organisations are responsible for running the training courses and Natural England only holds the number of trained operators who were put forward by the control companies, and subsequently become authorised to undertake licensed action. For 2016, over the 10 licensed areas, 1446 operators are authorised to carry out badger culling (latest figures: 17/10/16).
Natural England does not hold figures for the number of operators who attended refresher training. All operators who have been licensed in a previous year to undertake controlled shooting of badgers and who wish to be licensed again for the current year must attend refresher training. Industry organisations are responsible for undertaking refresher training. Natural England holds confirmation that each of these operators has attended refresher training.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what methods are used to deliver her Department's approved training on the humane shooting of badgers.
Answered by George Eustice
The training course on humane shooting of badgers consists of (a) a class room theory session, followed by a written theory test; and (b) Marksmanship Competency Assessment including a rifle test. Both parts of the training course are carried out by the industry organisations. However Government (Natural England) is responsible for approving the content of the training course and auditing the course tutors and course organisation.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what resources she has made available to ensure that Article 16 of the Tuberculosis (England) Order 2014 is enforced.
Answered by George Eustice
Article 16 of the Tuberculosis (England) Order 2014 concerns the requirement of herd owners to comply with cleansing and disinfection of premises following removal of TB reactors.
APHA inspectors carry out spot checks on a proportion of Bovine Tuberculosis breakdown farms every year to ensure compliance with these statutory cleansing and disinfection requirements.
APHA employs 208 vets and 137 animal health officers who may be involved in the administration and enforcement of these measures as part of their field duties
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many operators have been licenced to carry out badger culling; and how many such licence applications have been refused since the badger cull began.
Answered by George Eustice
For 2016 over the 10 licensed areas, 1446 operators are authorised to carry out badger culling, (latest figures: 17/10/16).
The control companies submit details of those operators they wish to put forward to become authorised to undertake licensed action, (each operator does not submit an individual licence application). Natural England has not refused to authorise any operator where the relevant details were submitted; i.e. confirmation of attending and passing the relevant training or refresher courses and valid Firearms Certificate or Shotgun Certificate details.