Campaigners from both camps of the badger cull debate will be eagerly awaiting the findings of a Judicial Review which begins today. The High Court challenge was instigated by the Badger Trust in May, over Defra's plans to continue culling badgers in the South-West without independent oversight.  

The Trust's review argues that Defra secretary Liz Truss and cull licensing body Natural England have acted unlawfully by failing to subject their cull to independent scrutiny, as advised by the Independent Expert Panel (IEP) that found last year's 'pilot cull' had missed self-set targets on humaneness and effectiveness. Defra argues that oversight from quangoes AHLVA and Natural England will constitute 'independent' supervision.

Even so, the Badger Trust has claimed that, without a completely independent panel, there can be no proper assessment of the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of culling this year, and therefore no lawful decisions could then be taken to extend culling, as is the department's intention. The group's challenge has been backed by some members of the IEP.

IEP member Professor Tim Coulson said on Tuesday, "If [the IEP's] 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 spokesperson Dominic Dyer said the government's decision to press ahead with culling, without allowing independent monitoring, is a "national disgrace." Dyer added, "We know from recent reports… that contractors employed by both the NFU and Animal Health Veterinary Laboratory Agency were alleged to have regularly breached operating procedures by falsifying hair trap data, stalking badgers outside designated cull zone areas and using firearms in a way that put public safety at risk."

The Trust has called for a demonstration outside the High Court on Thursday, to show support for the challenge, though a verdict is unlikely to be reached on Thursday.