Industry calls for Natural England to be stripped of its licencing role in DEFRA’s proposed badger cull have been rejected by DEFRA.
Farm minister Jim Paice said he would not consider suggestions that government agency Animal Health should take responsibility for any culls and monitoring their conduct
The National Beef Association had said Natural England was not the best agency to hand out cull licences after it made a submission to DEFRA’s TB consultation which said it had “low level confidence” that a cull would work.
The NBA’s TB committee said it did not approve of Natural England’s “lack of enthusiasm for the important tasks required of it” and said it thought Animal Health would be better suited to take hand out licences.
But Mr Paice said while Natural England’s opinions were “a shame”, changing the licencing body would not be practical.
“The vast majority of Natural England’s response is structured, considered and useful to us,” he said during a visit to the Dairy Event and Livestock show in Birmingham on Tuesday (6 September).
“The last paragraph on whether we can deliver is a shame.
“It’s upset the farming industry but it’s a consultation and they are one of a number of respondents and we will take their response into consideration.
“But we wouldn’t consider [changing the licencing body]. It would take us several steps back.
“We are running a consultation on how Natural England would give out licences. If we change we would have to go back months in the process and I don’t have the legal power to do it.”
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