The National Beef Association (NBA) has made calls for Natural England to be stripped of its role as the licensing authority for the proposed badger cull in England. It said Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA), which deals with the welfare of livestock animals, should take over licensing and monitoring duties for the cull from from the wildlife and natural environment body.

The Beef Association’s calls came in response to a perceived "lack of enthusiasm" on the part of Natural England for the cull. The NBA went on to question the body’s neutrality on the badger culling issue. image expired

Despite Natural England’s overall support for the cull, to which it attested in its submission to the Defra Consultation last week, the NBA said, "Natural England, even though it has accepted the job as licensing authority for the proposed badger cull, has nevertheless made clear that it is not keen to take on the work and also has reservations about the effectiveness of badger culling itself."

Although it acknowledged in its submission that "in the absence, to date, of an effective cattle vaccine, all measures that are effective in minimising cross-infection between cattle and badgers must form part of any disease control strategy," Natural England cast doubt on whether the untested 'free shooting' of running badgers would yield the results cull supporters claim, speculating that proposals as they stand could turn out to be less effective than previously thought.

NBA accuses Natural England of bias

Defra promised in July that any bTB control strategy would have to be based on precautionary principles and 'science-led'. Following a meeting in Bristol yesterday, the NBA’s bTB council issued a statement alleging that “Natural England is not prepared to take a neutral position and accept the task required of it by the Secretary of State."

It claimed the caveats in Natural England’s bTB response belied a conflict of interest between its licensing role and its conservation duties, stating it therefore believed Natural England “is not the most appropriate body to manage the proposed badger cull with the diligence required."

The Association also offered recommendations that the government reviews Natural England’s “suitability to the task in hand," once its installation as the licensing authority ends on 29 October. The BVA concluded that, "It is important that all aspects of the proposed cull are overseen by an organisation that is capable of doing the job without bias and because TB management is fundamentally a disease control issue the NBA strongly believes Natural England’s duties should be passed on to specialists within Animal Health."

The BVA's calls follow a letter written by NFU President Peter Kendall to Defra secretary Caroline Spelman. Kendall complained about the criticisms offered by Natural England in its formal response to the government’s badger control proposals.

After Natural England’s executive director for Science, Andrew Wood, appeared on the BBC Farming Today programme, Mr Kendall wrote, "It was already bad enough that Natural England had submitted an extremely unhelpful response to the consultation on issuing licences to cull badgers. But for an official of the agency charged with delivering government policy to appear on the radio arguing against government policy is in my view unacceptable."

Natural England declined to comment on the accusations made by Peter Kendall and the NBA.