Backbench Business — Badger Cull — 13 Mar 2014 at 16:56

The majority of MPs voted to call on the Government to stop the current badger culls.

The text of the motion approved by the majority of MPs was:

• That this House
• believes that the pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset have decisively failed against the criteria set out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in guidance to Natural England for licensing of the culls, which stipulated that 70 per cent of the badger population should be culled within a six-week period;
• notes that the costs of policing, additional implementation and monitoring, and the resort to more expensive cage-and-trap methods over an extended period have substantially increased the cost of the culls, and strengthened the financial case for vaccination;
• regrets that the decision to extend the original culls has not been subject to any debate or vote in Parliament;
• further regrets that the Independent Expert Panel will only assess the humaneness, safety and effectiveness of the original six-week period and not the extended cull period; and
• urges the Government to halt the existing culls and granting of any further licences, pending development of alternative strategies to eradicate bovine TB and promote a healthy badger population.

During the debate Bill Wiggin MP (North Herefordshire, Conservative) stated^[1]:

• On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. As DEFRA has not released its report, it would be demeaning to the House to have a Division on this issue.

It has been reported^[2] that some MPs did not participate in the vote on the grounds a report on the effectiveness of culling had not been published, so the MPs were not sufficiently informed to vote.

• [1] Bill Wiggin MP (North Herefordshire, Conservative), House of Commons, 13 March 2014
• [2] Pro-badger cull MPs boycott vote as Government loses 219 to 1, Western Morning News, March 14, 2014

Debate in Parliament | Source |