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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the size of the burden of work on farmers involved in setting up an area for the purpose of badger cull trials.

The cost to farmers of setting up an area was estimated at £20,000 per area per year as part of the Impact Assessment published by Defra on 30 November 2011.

Activities undertaken by farmers during this process typically include communications, planning, support, management and administration.

The Impact Assessment can be found on the GOV.UK website in the publications section. The £20,000 per area value includes costs for recruiting a group leader or project officer to co-ordinate the application including farm visits, collating maps, collecting data to satisfy all of the licence criteria and information required to support the Badger Control Plan, including information on bio-security awareness campaigns and the measures already in place. The group leader or project officer would liaise with the licensing authority during the application process and monitor participation and compliance throughout the cull period, including the submission of licence returns and any necessary enforcement action.