Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why they took two years to publish the reports by Professor Malcolm Bennett and Professor Chris Palgrave A study into the prevalence of bTB in found-dead badgers in the southern ‘Edge Area’ counties of England, SE3054, published June 2018; and what plans they have to respond to the report's conclusions.
It is Defra policy to encourage research findings such as these to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. We elected to delay the publication of the final reports on our website to allow the researcher some time to do this without undermining the peer review process.
These data are being used to inform analysis of where there is a reservoir of disease in the Edge area.