Policy paper

Summary of 2024 badger control operations

Published 11 June 2025

Applies to England

Natural England Chief Scientist’s advice on the outcome of badger control operations, 2024.

Effectiveness of industry-led culling

In 2024, alongside the Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), I have continued to provide oversight and advice on the effectiveness, safety and humaneness of the operations for existing and new intensive badger control (IC) areas and low risk area (LRA) control areas (Areas 54 – 73).  Our advice for areas which undertook licensed supplementary badger control (SBC) in 2024 will be released separately. The outcome of this year’s operations indicates that industry-led licensed badger control continues to deliver the level of effectiveness required by the policy to be confident of achieving disease control benefits: 

• There was a new area licensed in 2024 within the LRA (Area 73-Cumbria), which effectively applied lessons learned from badger control operations in previous years to make a successful start to their operations.

• 13 of the 18 areas in their 3rd or 4th years (Areas 55 to 72) applied an appropriate level of targeted effort to maintain the population at a reduced level.

• Area 69- Oxfordshire and Area 72- Warwickshire did not meet the recommended effort target, nevertheless they deployed sufficient coverage and met their minimum number so were declared to have completed successful culls.

• Area 58- Staffordshire finished marginally below the recommended coverage target nevertheless they applied sufficient effort and met their minimum number so were declared to have completed a successful cull.

• As in previous years, minimum and maximum numbers were updated once badger control operations were underway.  This allowed initial estimates of badger abundance to be refined by actual circumstances observed in the field. These numbers have been outlined within Annex A1 – Updating minimum and maximum numbers during 2024 badger control operations.

• 17 of the 18 areas continued beyond 42 days to maximise disease control benefits where factors such as late maize harvest and poor weather conditions hampered coverage on some parcels of land.  In these continuation periods, the number of badgers to be removed was increased.

• 2 areas (Area 56- Hampshire and Area 61- Oxfordshire) finished marginally below their uplifted minimum numbers, however they achieved the required level of effort and coverage and so delivered an effective cull.

• LRA Area 54- Lincolnshire completed its 5th year of badger control operations. In January 2024, Natural England extended the expiry date of the control licence in Area 54 for a further 2 years. Minimum or maximum numbers are not set for LRA areas, however they have a higher recommended level of effort that is equivalent to that of year 1 areas. In 2024, Area 54- Lincolnshire deployed significantly below the recommended level of effort, and whilst they did meet the spatial distribution of this effort, I concluded that they did not deliver an effective cull.

Safety of operations

Operations across all areas were carried out to agreed standards of public safety.  This reflects the continued importance of refresher training for contactors each year by companies and continued co-operation with the police. 

Humaneness of controlled shooting

Contractors showed high levels of discipline and compliance with the best practice guides (see Annex B). Although only a relatively small number of controlled shooting events were observed by Natural England monitors (n=27), the level of accuracy compares favourably with previous years and with other similar wildlife control activities.

Prof. Sallie Bailey
Chief Scientist, Natural England

UK Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice and conclusions on disease control benefits

In 2024, I oversaw and advised on disease control for 18 intensive control areas and 2 low risk area (LRA) control areas.  

Natural England’s Chief Scientist and I concluded that Areas 55 to 72 conducted an effective intensive badger cull in 2024, despite some areas marginally missing their minimum number, effort, or coverage targets. 

Areas 55 to 61 completed their fourth year of badger culling operations in 2024. Areas 62 to 72 were subject to an early termination review. Badger culling will continue in Areas 62-72 for the remainder of their licence duration subject to annual authorisation by Natural England.  

As with previous years, I was responsible for monitoring operations in the LRA of England. This aligns with the aim of badger control in the LRA being TB eradication. Badger control operations in the LRA are managed independently of intensive operations in the Edge Area and HRA and a review on the previous year’s operations is available. See April 2025: TB hotspots in the Low Risk Area of England

In 2023, infection in badgers remained dispersed across Hotspot 23, within Area 54. Therefore, I recommended that Area 54 enter its fifth year of badger cull operations in 2024. However, due to insufficient sustained and coordinated badger culling effort deployed across the area, Area 54 was deemed not to have completed an effective badger cull in 2024.  

Hotspot 29 (HS29) in Area 73, Cumbria, was established in 2023 in response to an increase in officially TB free status - withdrawn (OTFW) incidents. Enhanced TB surveillance measures have been implemented in cattle across HS29. Area 73 began badger culling operations in 2024 and met all targets. Therefore, Area 73 is considered to have carried out an effective first year cull. Badger control options for Areas 54 and 73 in 2025 will be reviewed in due course.

The likelihood of suffering in controlled shot badgers which were observed by Natural England in 2024 is similar to that reported for killing of other terrestrial wild species.  However, it is difficult to make an inference on the likely suffering of the whole population of controlled shot badgers in 2024 using the monitoring data currently available.

Prof. Christine Middlemiss
Chief Veterinary Officer

Background

On 16 October 2024, Defra announced^{[footnote 1]} that as part of the government’s 25-year strategy to eradicate bovine tuberculosis and protect the livelihoods of dairy and beef farmers, Natural England had licensed and authorised badger disease control operations across 20 areas in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Cumbria Derbyshire, Devon, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Badger control operations, lasting at least 6 weeks, took place in each area between 4 September and 28 October 2024. This document sets out the outcomes from those areas.

Effectiveness

Estimates of the badger population in each intensive control area were supplied by Defra for the purpose of giving advice to Natural England on setting the minimum and maximum number of badgers to be removed in the licences. The minimum and maximum numbers, methodologies and rationale used were published in October 2024^{[footnote 2]}.

As in previous years, Natural England monitored the progress in each control area closely. The levels of contractor shooting effort, number of cage-traps set and number of badgers removed were recorded on a daily basis in all accessible land parcels. This provided Natural England with regular information on the numbers of badgers removed, the amount of effort deployed by each control company and its spatial distribution. This enabled a detailed assessment of the progress that each control company was making towards achieving their minimum and maximum numbers (where appropriate) and allowed Natural England to assess whether resources were being effectively deployed across all accessible land.

Updating minimum and maximum numbers

As set out in Section D of Defra’s advice to Natural England, numbers were reviewed as operations progressed to assess whether the badger population in each Intensive Control Area was higher or lower than the initial estimate suggested. Based on an assessment of the data on Day 28 in 18 control areas^{[footnote 3]}, Defra advised Natural England to adjust the minimum numbers upwards in 11 of these areas and downwards in the remaining 7 to better reflect the evidence of badger abundance. Details of the calculations can be found in Annex A1.

Progress towards minimum and maximum numbers

In 2024, 16 control areas achieved their minimum number and did not exceed their maximum number. Area 56- Hampshire achieved their updated Day 42 minimum number by Day 36, however it was agreed that the area could continue beyond Day 42. As Area 61- Oxfordshire did not meet their Day 42 minimum, it was also agreed that they could continue beyond Day 42. These continuations were agreed to ensure coverage of parcels of land that were yet to be accessed, in order to maximise disease control benefits. Like other areas that continued beyond Day 42, these areas consequently received an additional increase of 1.5% per additional operational day and ceased below this uplifted number however they deployed the required level of effort and coverage, see Table 1.

Table 1: Number of badgers removed by Areas 54 to 63 during 2024 badger control operations

Area	Updated minimum number	Updated maximum number	Badgers removed	Removed by controlled shooting	Removed by cage-trapping
Area 54 - Lincolnshire	N/A	N/A	54	54	0
Area 55 - Shropshire*	68	93	93	93	0
Area 56- Hampshire*	208	283	207	183	24
Area 57 - Berkshire*	81	109	81	73	8
Area 58 - Staffordshire*	315	428	355	331	24
Area 59 - Worcestershire*	124	168	126	124	2
Area 60 - Shropshire*	789	1071	793	765	28
Area 61 - Oxfordshire*	232	315	201	185	16
Area 62 - Buckinghamshire*	452	614	542	500	42
Area 63 - Cornwall	138	187	171	133	38
Area 64 - Cornwall*	142	192	184	150	34
Area 65 - Derbyshire*	494	671	643	611	32
Area 66 - Devon*	81	110	108	103	5
Area 67 - Hampshire*	164	224	182	160	22
Area 68 - Northamptonshire*	735	998	841	743	98
Area 69 - Oxfordshire*	188	256	226	222	4
Area 70 - Somerset*	74	101	83	67	16
Area 71 - Warwickshire*	273	370	312	286	26
Area 72 - Warwickshire*	627	850	675	644	31
Area 73 - Cumbria*	N/A	N/A	576	276	300

*Minimum and maximum numbers for areas include an additional increase of 1.5% per operational day given continuation in those areas beyond 42 days, see Annex A1.

More data on these areas can be found in Annex A2. Natural England will use the data on effort levels and numbers of badgers removed to inform its requirements for future badger control operations for Areas 62 to 72.

Accuracy of controlled shooting

Shooting accuracy was used as a proxy measure for ‘humaneness’ and was assessed using observations from Natural England Monitors of free-ranging badgers being shot at under controlled shooting conditions.

Summary of controlled shooting observations

Monitors observed 27 free-ranging badgers being shot at using controlled shooting, of which 1 was categorised as shot at but not retrieved. In such cases, the use of firearms carries an element of risk with regard to the wounding of individual animals. While the contractor has control over the condition of the firearm, ammunition used, zeroing of the rifle and shooting technique, once the trigger is released, external parameters outside of the contractor’s control come into play.  A missed shot can result for a number of reasons, with movement of the target species simultaneously with trigger release being the most common.

The non-retrieval rate observed in 2024 of 3.7% (95% confidence interval 0.4%–16.0%^{[footnote 4]}) was one of the lowest rates observed since licensing operations commenced in 2013.

More details on compliance monitoring conducted during badger control operations can be found in Annex B.

Safety of operations

Operations in all 20 control areas were carried out to a high standard of public safety. All existing badger control companies’ contractors continued to receive refresher training prior to the commencement of operations in 2024, on the requirements of the published best practice guides^{[footnote 5]}, lessons learned and safety training.

In relation to the use of firearms in all 20 control areas, no significant incidents affecting public safety were reported. Contractors continued to show high levels of discipline and adherence to the best practice guides, see Annex B.

Conclusions

The results from 2024 indicate that 19 badger control companies have delivered the level of badger removal required to be confident of disease control benefits and that the operations were carried out to a high standard of public safety.

Area 54- Lincolnshire did not deploy sufficient levels of effort however did cover sufficient land. The area was subsequently deemed ineffective.

The accuracy of controlled shooting compared favourable to previous years, although only a relatively small proportion of controlled shooting events were assessed by Natural England Monitors. Licensed control companies will need to continue to ensure that their contractors receive refresher training to maintain high standards of effectiveness, humaneness and safety.

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-authorisation-for-badger-control-in-2024.   ↩

2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-to-natural-england-on-setting-minimum-and-maximum-numbers-of-badgers-to-be-controlled-in-2024 ↩

3. The remaining areas (Area 54 - Lincolnshire and Area 73 - Cumbria) did not receive minimum and maximum numbers as these are of less utility in the low risk area given the aim of preventing disease spreading within wildlife and aiding eradication of disease. ↩

4. Estimates of confidence intervals for proportions were produced using a “Modified Jeffries interval” (Brown and others, 2001). ↩

5. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/630e1f72e90e0729dcbd7ed1/Controlled_Shooting_of_Free-ranging_Badgers_BPG_-_August_2022.pdf

   https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1100995/Cage-trapping_and_Dispatch_of_Badgers_BPG_August_2022.pdf ↩