Environment secretary Owen Paterson has spoken in the House of Commons for the first time since emergency eye surgery caused him to miss work at the height of flooding in the South West.

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However, the government recently went back on some of the stricter movement regulations initially put forward last year. The environment and rural affairs department reneged on proposals to order TB tests on all cattle before they are moved on or off common land, which was brought in as part of a raft of measures to improve efforts to tackle bTB. The cattle industry in areas that would be affected by new regulations – such as moorland in the South-West – had lobbied against the measures.  

Experts have suggested that culling is a "costly distraction." The M. Bovis bacterium that causes bovine TB affects a range of wildlife and domestic animals, aside from the badger. Reporting in 2007, the group behind the RBCT trials, which played the largest part in informing current thought on the link between TB in badgers and cattle concluded that culling badgers "no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed," they said, "Some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better."

On Thursday, Labour MP Angela Smith said that figures from the Independent Expert Panel and government data released in response to Freedom of Information requests prove that the governemnt's culls last year were inhumane. She suggested that these figures show that the culling policy had failed and should not be rolled out or even continued in Somerset and Gloucestershire later this year.

Paterson said in response that he is still considering the IEP report and will update parliament on its findings "in due course."

Reports had suggested that the Environment Secretary would be announcing a roll-out of culling into Dorset this summer. An area of Dorset had been named as a reserve cull zone when pilots were confirmed in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2012. According to reports in the Sunday Times last week, said to be from 'Whitehall sources', culling will go ahead in all three areas this summer.

The same sources suggested that the Defra head would be making a statement on the findings of the IEP report, which it was revealed he had received during the backbench debate on the cull on 13^th March.

The Parliamentary debate earlier in March centred on a text condemning the badger cull and calling on Defra to investigate alternative policies to tackle bovine TB, tabled by Conservative MP Anne Main, ended in a coup for MPs opposed to culling; Main's motion was passed by 219 votes to one.

Leaked findings from the IEP's report revealed earlier this month that experts had found last year's badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire to be inhumane and ineffective based on the government's own criteria. Defra said the department would be considering the findings of the IEP report before making a decision on culling policy.

Cattle vaccine

Continuing to focus on wider measures of the forthcoming bTB strategy, Paterson said he had discussed cattle vaccines with Commissioner Borg, as he had been urged to do in his absence on 13^th March. However, he claimed that it would take at least ten years for a useable vaccine to become commercially available and licensed.

However, Paterson was criticised by shadow farming minister Huw Irranca-Davies for attending a chocolate factory visit instead of the backbench debate earlier in the month; voting after the debate saw the government's position on culling defeated by 219 votes to 1. Irranca-Davies called on the Defra secretary to have the strength of his convictions and assent to a binding debate on the future of culling in Parliament, before culls resume in the summer.

Mr Paterson denied storming out of an earlier opposition day debate on badger culling in May 2013. However, Paterson's exit from the Commons was noted last May and he was heavily criticised at the time for leaving, reportedly muttering "I can't stand any more of this." His denial on Thursday was greeted with laughter in the Commons.