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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the relative importance of (a) open market and (b) private sale values of pedigree cattle in the determination of compensation for bovine TB.

A vast amount of sales data (for around 1.4 million cattle) is collected through the year from open market sales and used to determine the monthly TB compensation rates in England. Under Defra’s table valuation based system, compensation paid reflects the average market sale prices in the 51 cattle categories we use. The categories are based on an animal’s age, gender, type (beef or dairy) and pedigree status. Only sales data for pedigree cattle is used to determine compensation rates for owners of pedigree herds.

We do not have access to private sales valuation data.