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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the potential merits of creating a distinct classification of responder, separate from reactor, for non-reactor cattle that test positive to non-statutory bovine tuberculosis tests and may be latently infected and non-infectious and (b) the potential impact of such a classification on (i) compensation costs and (ii) farmer-led disease management.

The recently published recommended Bovine TB Control Strategy for England (https://tbhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Recommended-Bovine-TB-Strategy.pdf) proposes facilitating wider access to privately funded ancillary bovine TB testing to support earlier detection of infected cattle and disease management.

The Government will now consider the recommendations in the proposed Strategy, including the creation of a distinct, formal classification of ‘responder’ for TB control purposes, and the potential impacts of such a classification.