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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether a population estimate has been conducted to determine how many badgers need to be culled in Cumbria to meet his Department's tests on reducing bovine TB in cattle herds (a) without causing local extinction and (b) by removing 70 per cent of the badger population.

The definition of minimum annual control is provided on the Cumbria authorisation letter:

(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739750/area-32-cumbria-tb-area-control-licence-redacted.pdf).

The aim of badger culling in the Low Risk Area is to remove all potentially infected badgers as quickly as possible, in order to remove infection before it has a chance to spread widely in badgers in the area. Therefore, surveillance during a cull is of greater use to determine the remaining population.

The Bern Secretariat have been informed of the Guidance to Natural England on requirements for badger control in the Low Risk Area of England. The cull area in Cumbria is 0.3% of the Low Risk Area and Natural England did not set a maximum number of badgers to be removed. The guidance to Natural England can be found on Gov.uk at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-natural-england-preventing-spread-of-bovine-tb