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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the relative effectiveness of cage trapping and controlled shooting in controlling badger populations.

No direct comparison between the effectiveness of cage trapping and controlled shooting has been made. A combination of cage trapping and controlled shooting is the most efficient approach to obtain the required 70% population reduction to ensure disease control benefits.

The numbers of badgers removed by cage trapping and controlled shooting in the cull areas in 2016 was published in December 2016.