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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, under what criteria she evaluates the humaneness of badger culls.

Our key criterion for humaneness remains the accuracy of shooting. The Independent Expert Panel suggested that the threshold for humaneness of controlled shooting is a time to death of less than five minutes from time of shooting. Field observations in both 2013 and 2014 indicated a very high likelihood of a time to death of less than 5 minutes in retrieved badgers. The likelihood of suffering in badgers is comparable with the range of outcomes reported when other culling activities currently accepted by society have been assessed.