Policy paper

Government badger control costs 2017

Updated 16 October 2024

1. Background

On 11 September 2017, Defra published, as part of its measured approach to tackling bovine TB and achieving disease control benefits, Natural England鈥檚 authorisations to local farmers and landowners to carry out targeted badger control in parts of Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire and Herefordshire.

Operations took place between 6 September and 28 October 2017.

2. Badger control costs

Information on costs to government in 2013 to 2017 is provided in Table 1 below.

Badger control costs 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Licensing and compliance monitoring 拢859,000 拢1,036,000 拢1,003,000 拢1,284,000 拢1,289,000
Humaneness monitoring, including post mortems 拢2,628,000 拢1,515,000 拢154,000 拢392,000 拢506,000
Efficacy monitoring 拢2,311,000 拢17,000 拢0 拢0 拢0
Advice and assessments 拢389,000 拢294,000 拢460,000 拢646,000 拢728,000
Other costs, including equipment 拢107,000 拢205,000 拢162,000 拢53,000 拢49,000
Total cost 拢6,294,000 拢3,067,000 拢1,779,000 拢2,375,000 拢2,572,000

Information and data on badger control monitoring in Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire and Herefordshire in 2017 is available.

3. Badger control policing costs funded by Defra

Force Total 2017
Southern Hub Avon and Somerset 拢2,785,273
Devon and Cornwall
Dorset
Wiltshire
Northern Hub Cheshire 拢1,261,288
Gloucestershire
Warwickshire
West Mercia
TOTAL 拢4,046,561

Policing costs are also published by individual forces.

Information on badger control costs to government, including policing costs funded by Defra, in 2016 and previous years