Of the 421 carcasses of badgers culled by controlled shooting in 2013 – 2016 that have undergone post-mortem examination the distribution of these by year is as follows:

Number of carcases examined

Number with evidence of multiple shots

2013

158

8

2014

234

11

2015

28

6

2016

1

0

Total

421

25

The report on monitoring TB prevalence levels in cattle herds inside, and up to 2km outside, the first two badger control areas for the first two years of badger control is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-incidence-of-tb-in-cattle-in-licensed-badger-control-areas-in-2014-to-2015

We understand the importance of providing certainty for farmers on funding, which is why the Government has guaranteed CAP Pillar I funding until the end of the Multiannual Financial Framework in 2020. Further details on arrangements for after 2020 will be given in due course and our intention is to do so sufficiently in advance of 2020 to give farmers time to plan.

Our ambition is to be a world-leading food, farming and fishing nation that grows more, sells more and exports more of our food around the world. To this end, we are committed to publishing a 25 year food and farming plan and in order to develop this we are currently gathering views from right across industry and all parts of the UK.

The Low, Edge and High-Risk Bovine Tuberculosis areas have only been in place since 2013. However, figures in the table below give figures retrospectively assuming the areas.

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Edge

69

113

23

35

71

82

194

191

205

High

681

617

14

27

31

40

45

44

41

Low

36

44

42

36

22

52

32

45

42

The total number of herds subject to interferon gamma test in 2008 and 2009 are higher than in subsequent years because mandatory IFN-γ testing policy of animals that have been skin tested twice with inconclusive results became redundant and ended in 2010, when all three countries of Great Britain moved to a stricter policy of removing as reactors all those animals that failed to resolve at their first skin retest.

Between 2009 and 2016, the number of samples (animals) tested in England has quadrupled, with the largest increase taking place in the Edge Area.

IFN-γ testing of TB breakdown herds in the HRA is also about to be significantly increased from April 2017.

Response rates for Freedom of Information requests received by Defra are published quarterly on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics

Information has been published up to September 2016 and subsequent figures will be published in due course.

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), as with all European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), run on a seven year cycle. The predecessor to the EMFF was the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), which ran from 2007 – 2013. A breakdown of payments received by the UK, for each fund are given below. The EMFF did not open for applications until January 2016 and payments for projects did not commence until later that year. Therefore, the figure for 2015 and most of that for 2016 comprise of the pre-financing element that is provided by the European Commission.

UK European Fisheries Fund (EFF) payments 2008-2016

Payment Year

Sum of EFF Payments (£)

Sum of EFF Payments (€)

2008

16,454,572.42

19,295,904.46

2012

27,267,995.24

32,650,846.26

2013

8,964,246.85

10,392,606.72

2014

25,491,459.22

32,251,658.18

2015

20,712,212.30

28,563,761.14

Total

98,890,486.03

123,154,776.76

Payment Year

Sum of EMFF Payments (£)

Sum of EMFF Payments (€)

2015

3,573,295.44

4,571,021.42

2016

5,334,537.42

6,856,532.13

Total

8,907,832.86

11,427,553.55

Information on dog attacks on sheep and other livestock is not routinely collated by Defra. However, details of the number of people prosecuted under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 for each of the last four years for which details are available can be found in the attached table.

Defra and the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England (AHWBE) recently met police forces, farming and rural interests to discuss the situation. Under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, five police forces are collaborating to pilot more systematic data collection of incidents and good response practices

Information on dog attacks on sheep and other livestock is not routinely collated by Defra. However, details of the number of people prosecuted under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 for each of the last four years for which details are available can be found in the attached table.

Defra and the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England (AHWBE) recently met police forces, farming and rural interests to discuss the situation. Under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, five police forces are collaborating to pilot more systematic data collection of incidents and good response practices

In light of the comments made by Porthleven Town Council, Cornwall Council and objectors, the applicant for the Shipyard building has submitted amended plans.

The first question most will ask is ‘what has changed?’ According to the plans the building footprint has been reduced in size by 10% (from 855m2 to 770m2).  This has resulted in the rear elevation reducing to 14.4m in width and the length to 33.4m (for reference, the current blue building are 31m in length).

Amended plans

old plans

The building has also been moved nearer to the existing Origin Coffee building enabling the covered walkway and bus stop roof to be attached to the coffee house.  This has resulted in a larger gap between the river fence and the building from 7m to 7.9m. This is to address the issue of manoeuvring boats in and out of the shipyard.

The “look out” or staircase top has been removed from the top of the building.  Access will still exist using a sliding glass top to the stairs. Yet there is still no disabled wheelchair access to the roof.

Old position

I think the previous colour of Blue was universally disliked by commentators and in addressing that the colour of the building has been changed to silver grey.

There is a dedicated bus shelter as the previous scheme did not show clearly the enclosed dedicated space in the current bus shelter location. There will be a defined area with bench seats and a glass weather protective screen with the canopy roof covering the bus shelter.

The public toilets are still there and will be free to Porthleven people and the facilities will be cleaned and maintained by the owner.

The entrance shown on Methleigh Bottoms will be increased to 8.0m in width to ensure boats trailers, cars and HGVs will have improved manoeuvring. In a change to the access to the site the only entrance/exit to the site will be via the new entrance on Methleigh Bottoms. Only boats will be allowed to exit the current site

The lack of sufficient dedicated parking bays has also been addresses with 10 spaces dedicated to the new building

The proposed use of this building is to create jobs or potential work space.  At present almost no office space exists in Porthleven to provide small business with incubator work space / workshops.

These plans will again be discussed by Porthleven TC (date to be confirmed) where anyone for or against can make representations. I would also suggest people who have previously commented to update their view, or want to comment again due to the changes to the application.

Previous blogs can be found HERE

This control has been in place for some time for all pet and farmed mammals. Under the Tuberculosis (England) Order 2014 the detection of suspect TB lesions in carcases and the identification of Mycobacterium bovis from tissue or other samples (including dogs) is notifiable.

Bovine TB is a notifiable disease in all farmed and pet mammal species, including dogs. The disease has only very rarely been diagnosed in dogs, in this country and elsewhere, and investigations into bovine TB breakdowns in cattle herds have never identified the source of a breakdown as an infected dog.

An epidemiological investigation into this incident is underway.

We have no plans to do this.

TB in dogs, caused by Mycobacterium bovis (the bovine TB bacterium), is extremely rare and dogs pose a very low risk of transmitting the disease.

Bovine TB is a notifiable disease in all farmed and pet mammal species, including dogs. The disease has only very rarely been diagnosed in dogs, in this country and elsewhere, and investigations into bovine TB breakdowns in cattle herds have never identified the source of a breakdown as an infected dog.

Government veterinary experts have provided advice to the hunt kennels and hounds from the affected kennel have not been in contact with other hounds since the initial case was suspected. At this stage no further Government action is considered necessary in relation to other hunts.

We have robust engagement plans to inform and shape our future agriculture and land use policy options and take on board stakeholder views. Decisions on the timings of future legislation and consultation documents about agriculture and land use will be shared in due course. We want to ensure that everyone who is interested has the opportunity to have their say as we shape the vision for these vital industries, including through formal consultation and broader engagement opportunities.

The Government remains committed to banning the use of wild animals in travelling circuses. We support the Bill sponsored by the Member for Torbay, the Wild Animals in Circuses (Prohibition) Bill. If this Bill is not successful we will introduce legislation when Parliamentary time is available.

We have made no detailed assessment of the implications of bans introduced in other countries.

The number of cattle movements in the UK recorded on the Cattle Tracing System by the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) in each year from 2008 to 2016 is shown in the table below:

Year

Cattle Movements

2008

13,445,614

2009

13,194,912

2010

13,654,294

2011

14,570,411

2012

13,810,509

2013

13,736,427

2014

13,742,163

2015

13,783,821

2016

14,084,952

These figures include from April 2010 movements manually entered by BCMS, usually as a result of keeper contact. Where an animal moves off a location and then onto another that is classified in reporting as 2 movements.

Trials have shown that reducing the badger population can help reduce the spread of bovine TB. Tests carried out during the Randomised Badger Culling Trial showed that roughly a third of badgers in the high risk area were infected with TB.