The Badger Trust has been granted permission for a Judicial Review challenge in the High Court against DEFRA Secretary of State Owen Paterson and cull licensing body Natural England.

The Trust announced that it had mounted a legal challenge in late May, arguing that aspects of the government's proposed cull policy would be illegal. A challenge launched ahead of the first year of culling in the South-West was rejected in 2013.

In its Judicial Review, the Trust will argue that, by failing to put in place any independent oversight of culling this year, Owen Paterson and Natural England cannot perform any proper assessment of their ‘science-based’ policy.

The IEP charged with assessing last year's cull found that the government had failed to deliver on two of three self-set targets (humaneness and effectiveness). Although Defra said it would "learn lessons" from the IEP's report and subsequent recommendations, ministers confirmed earlier this year that future culls would not be monitored independently.

The Trust contends that an independent Panel is "needed to oversee the design of data collection, its analysis and interpretation." Without this, it maintains, "There can be no proper assessment of the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of the culling operation, something that would be needed before any lawful decision to continue with further culls around the country."

Neither badgers nor cattle were tested for bovine TB by cull operatives in cull zones last year.

Although the Badger Trust initially appealed to the British Veterinary Association for support, the BVA refused this. The Association was once a staunch supporter of the government's culls, but has distanced itself from the government stance in recent months, since the IEP published its findings and Natural England revealed that markspeople will be allowed to use shotguns in this year's cull, despite there being a lack of evidence on their humaneness.

Members of the IEP have backed the Trust's challenge. Commenting on the Judicial Review challenge, Ranald Munro, Chairman of the IEP said, "The Independent Expert Panel's report states clearly the rationale for ensuring that independent monitoring and the use of the statistically robust sample sizes and analytical methods, as used in the 2013 culls, are followed in further culling exercises. If this scientific advice is ignored then the data collected during the proposed 2014 culls will be insufficiently reliable for assessment of humaneness and effectiveness.

"This means that farmers, veterinarians and scientists intimately involved in controlling bovine TB will be denied the information necessary to allow them to assess whether the IEP’s recommended changes to the culling process have corrected the failings identified by the pilot culls."

Badger Trust CEO Dominic Dyer commented on Tuesday, "Owen Paterson has done all he can to prevent this Judicial Review case going to the High Court and he has failed. His refusal to put in place any independent monitoring of the badger culls due to take place in Gloucestershire and Somerset over the next few months against the advice of the Independent Expert Panel he set up is a national disgrace.

"We know from last year’s culls that many badgers were wounded and suffered long painful deaths in a disastrous operation, which proved a complete and utter failure on scientific, economic and humaneness grounds."