206519 - Bovine Tuberculosis (Answered)

Mrs Anne Main
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether future badger culls will be independently monitored.

George Eustice

Monitoring will continue to be carried out on both effectiveness and humaneness during the second year of the badger culls. As during the pilot culls last year, trained staff from Animal Health Veterinary Laboratory Agency and Natural England will be carrying out the monitoring. The monitoring will be focused on addressing the issues identified in the Independent Expert Panel’s report on last year’s pilot culls. Both field observations of controlled shooting and post-mortem examinations will continue to be carried out. The results of the monitoring will be made publicly available.