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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report entitled Bovine TB Control Strategy for England, published in June 2026, what specific criteria her Department intends the proposed framework for determining when the evidence threshold for permitting lethal badger control will apply; who will develop the framework; which body will adjudicate whether the threshold has been met in any given case; and whether the criteria, and each future determination made under them, will be published before any lethal control is authorised.

This Government is currently considering the proposals set out in the recommended bovine TB control strategy for England. As a result, no decisions have yet been taken on the evidence threshold for permitting lethal badger control, including the criteria that might apply or governance arrangements for developing and applying any framework.