Welsh government accused of cull cover-up

The Welsh Government has denied an allegation that it ignored and censored important scientific information which led to the decision to abandon plans to cull badgers in Wales.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales alleged that there had been a lack of transparency on the decision because information had been omitted from documents made publicly available by the Welsh Government.

The union also suggested that environment minister, John Griffiths, ignored the previous findings of the Court of Appeal when he made his decision to vaccinate badgers in the North Pembrokeshire Intensive Action Area.

The court had ruled that any cull decision must only be based on the conditions in the action area.

The union said that during recent meetings with government ministers and officials, it was made clear that the decision to drop the cull plans was based on an anticipated reduction in bovine TB of just 13.4%.
 
FUW president Emyr Jones said that the 13.4% figure related to studies on a larger and more open area than the IAA in Wales.

The Welsh treatment area was designed with hard boundaries to prevent badgers from escaping a cull and spreading the disease.

Mr Jones reckoned that this key information was overlooked. Any judgment should, therefore, have been based on a much higher anticipated reduction in confirmed incidences of 25.7%, he said.

It is also understood by the FUW that the government ignored a computer model figure used to compare the effects of culling and vaccination, that had shown a cull could lead to reductions of 30-40%.

Mr Jones said he believed the minister had “a duty to the Welsh farming industry” to explain in detail the scientific and legal reasoning that underpinned his decision.

He called for all the relevant legal advice he had received to be released into the public domain.

But a Welsh Government spokesman rejected allegations and said that the 13.4% figure related to an estimate of the effects of proactive badger culling on herd breakdowns in the IAA, compared with a no-cull position.

For more on this topic

Badger cull background and information