HC Deb 29 April 2004 vol 420 cc1180-1W
Mr. Drew

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will publish the evidence to support the hypothesis that there has been an explosion of the badger population in the UK. [165450]

Mr. Bradshaw

English Nature advises that there are likely to be in the region of 300,000 to 400,000 badgers in Great Britain. This figure is derived from the most recent National Badger Survey which took place in the mid-1990s1. The survey also reported that there had been a 77 per cent. increase in badger numbers between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. 1"Changes in the British badger population, 1988 to 1997" by G. Wilson, S. Harris and G. McLaren (1997), published by the People's Trust for Endangered Species (ISBN1 855800187)

Mr. Watson

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will publish the interim results of the proactive badger strategy. [166881]

Mr. Bradshaw

The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) undertakes interim analyses of data collected from the proactive treatment areas of the RBCT at six-monthly intervals. The ISG advise that analyses of such data collected so far has not yielded a statistically significant result. Any significant interim findings will be reported to Ministers without delay.

On 6 April, DEFRA announced the publication of a report from an independent scientific panel chaired by Professor Charles Godfray FRS reviewing the progress of the RBCT and associated DEFRA research, as part of a wider review of DEFRA's science. The report recommended that DEFRA policymakers should have access to the the interim results from the RBCT. The recommendation did not encompass full publication. Even so, it was challenged by the ISG and the matter is still under consideration.

We have been advised by the ISG that a full set of trial data from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) should have been gathered by the end of 2006. A full report will follow, with publication as soon as possible thereafter.