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 he has made of trends in the size of the badger population in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the East Midlands.

The first major national badger population survey in a decade began in February, with the first round of fieldwork now concluded. Further surveying will resume later this year, to estimate badger abundance and population recovery.