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Ministers set to announce English badger cull green light

FARMERS GUARDIAN
8 December 2011 | By Alistair Driver

DEFRA Ministers are expected to confirm a decision to allow two pilot badger culls to take place next year in England within the next week or so.

Farming Minister Jim Paice has said Ministers intend to announce the decision before Parliament breaks for Christmas recess on Tuesday, December 20. An announcement is tentatively expected towards the end of next week, although Defra has not confirmed any timings.

Launching a stakeholder consultation on the details of the policy in July, Defra Secretary Caroline Spelman said she was ‘strongly minded’ to allow ‘controlled culling’ in two pilot areas next year, subject to a final decision once the consultation responses had been considered.

It is understood that, despite concerns raised about elements of the proposals by Natural England, the body responsible for issuing control licences, nothing has emerged since to fundamentally alter that view. Ministers are therefore expected to give the policy the green light.

However, the timing of the two pilot culls, if they go ahead, will be awaited with interest.

The pilots could, in theory, start as early as next June. Any delay to commencing the pilots next year could be significant as it would reduce the prospects of the policy being rolled out nationally, in up to 10 areas, next year, something the industry still maintains should be the goal.

A number of issues could affect the likely start start date. One is the prospect of a legal challenge by the Badger Trust, which Mr Paice has described as ‘inevitable’. Any court case would have to be done and dusted before the policy could commence.

Defra has also come under pressure from the Home Office to delay the cull until after the London Olympics, which finish in August, to ensure there is sufficient policing capacity to deal with any disruption.

Following reports in the autumn that Home Secretary Theresa had raised objections to the cull, partly on those grounds, Mr Paice said he has had lengthy discussions on policing issues with the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Mrs Spelman said in July that ‘initially in the first year’, two pilot areas would be established to monitor the efficacy and humaneness of controlled shooting of badgers. These would be independently monitored and the cull would only be rolled out nationally once the pilots have been declared humane and effective.

Under the proposals consulted on this farmers will come together in the control areas to form limited companies, which will apply for four-year licences for culling and vaccination by submitting a Badger Control Plan to Natural England.

What are the requirements for a cull?

The July consultation outlined the proposed conditions linked to badger control licences. Key requirements include:

• The application must cover at least 150sq.km of land within yearly testing areas, although Defra estimates areas will average 350sq.km.

• At least 70 per cent of total land area must be accessible for culling, with at least 90 per cent accessible or within 200m of accessible land.

• Applicants must put in place ‘reasonable measures’ to mitigate risk to non-participating farmers and landowners in control area and 2km around it.

• Applicants must take reasonable measures to establish barriers and buffers around culling areas - such as rivers, coast, motorways and cattle free areas - to minimise badger perturbation.

• Culling will be done by cage trapping and shooting, and controlled shooting. Contractors will need to be licensed and required to complete a Government-approved training course to ‘Deer Stalking Level 1’ standard.

• Culling must be sustained for four years and co-ordinated on accessible land. It will be limited to six weeks in each area (outside closed seasons: Dec 1-May31 for trapping; Dec 1-May 31 for controlled shooting).

• Badger populations should be reduced by a minimum of 70 per cent.

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