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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to follow the Northern Ireland initiative of "test and vaccinate or remove" in relation to badgers carrying bovine tuberculosis as opposed to any replication of the cull.

The Northern Ireland Executive has begun a five-year ‘test and vaccinate or remove' tuberculosis research project on badgers in a 100km² area of County Down. We currently have no plans to adopt this approach in England although we will of course be interested in the outcome of the research in Northern Ireland.