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Mass badger culling will end after next year, the government has signalled, after years of controversy about the practice.
But wildlife campaigners expressed caution, the Badger Trust saying it remained “to be convinced of the sincerity of any commitment to bring the cull to an end”.
At the same time as the announcement, the government published figures showing 38,642 badgers were killed under four-year licences last year.
But the real figure is even higher because the 38,642 does not include “supplementary” licences, the trust warned.
The number is up on the previous year’s toll of 35,034.
Four months ago, The Independent revealed how leading scientists and wildlife experts including Jane Goodall and Virginia McKenna  issued a direct plea to Boris Johnson to cancel a planned badger cull expansion.The cull was designed to reduce the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) from badgers to cattle.
It prompted protests from the start, with opponents arguing it was not just cruel, but also actively spread TB, because when setts are disrupted, badgers will move about more than ever, potentially carrying disease with them.
Now, environment Secretary George Eustice has set out proposals for Natural England (NE) to stop issuing the current intensive cull licences for new areas after 2022, and to enable new licences to be cut short if the chief veterinary officer agrees.  Branding culling “unacceptable”, he said he was also planning to restrict any new supplementary cull licences to two years and stop re-issuing such licences in any areas where supplementary culling has previously been licensed.
Some 102,349 wild badgers have been killed since the current cull began in 2013, according to the Badger Trust.
Mr Eustice is also launching a public consultation and a call for views on proposals and longer-term options on how to curb TB in cattle.
In a written parliamentary statement, he said: “The bTB eradication strategy we published in 2014 is making progress. We are now seeing sustained improvements in the high-risk area. We need to build on this momentum to achieve bTB-free status for England by 2038.”He said work on developing a cattle vaccine was on track to be completed within five years.  Last year ministers were accused of breaking a pledge to end the culling of badgers by expanding projects to trap and shoot the animals.The Badger Trust said Mr Eustice’s announcement was “a real bag of mixed messages” and the charity was not confident that it did signal the end of the badger cull.  The Trust questioned the decision to release the figures on the same day as the announcement, “with the perceived – yet questionable – ‘good news’ ahead of the ‘very bad news’”.
It said another 38,000 or more badgers were likely to be culled this year, “paying the ultimate price for a policy based on highly controversial science”.
Dominic Dyer, a former Badger Trust chief executive, said: “In some areas of England the badger population has been so depleted by culling that the species is in danger of becoming locally extinct from areas which it has inhabited since the Ice Age.  “The government has dithered and delayed on finding on finding an exit strategy to badger culling.”
But he said ending issuing new licences was better for farmers, taxpayers and the future of badgers and marked “the beginning of the end of one of the darkest chapters in the history of farming and wildlife protection in England”.
Mr Eustice added: “I envisage that in future, some form of culling would be an option in exceptional circumstances to address any local disease flare-ups. This transitional period will also give us time to undertake badger vaccination pilots and develop our future badger vaccination policy.” More

The UK is offering EU citizens financial incentives to leave the UK and return to their country of origin, a move that activists say “undermines” the government’s claim it is encouraging EU citizens to apply for settled status.EU citizens were quietly added to the government’s voluntary returns scheme from 1 January. The scheme, which is meant to help migrants in specific situations leave the UK voluntarily, includes flights and up to £2,000 in resettlement money.The Public Interest Law Centre, which is running a project to help protect homeless EU citizens in the UK, criticised the offer of money to return to the continent as contradictory.Benjamin Morgan, who runs the project, told The Guardian: “It is clear from our casework that some of the most vulnerable EU citizens are yet to resolve their status. Barriers to application and delays in Home Office decision-making remain significant factors.“This mixed messaging around settled status on the one hand and voluntary returns on the other, seriously undermines the government’s claim that the rights of vulnerable Europeans will be protected after Brexit.”A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Some people may choose not to obtain status under EUSS and may not wish to remain in the UK after the deadline. “That is why we have written to stakeholders to inform them that EEA nationals who wish to leave the UK may now be eligible for support to help them do so under the voluntary returns scheme.”The deadline for European citizens living in the UK who wish to remain here to apply for the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) is 30 June.It comes amid calls from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JWCI) for the government to immediately lift the deadline for the EUSS, as it warned that thousands of European key workers risked losing their legal status and face removal from the UK.In a report titled When the Clapping Stops: EU Care Workers After Brexit, the JWCI said that one in seven European care workers in the UK were unsure what the settlement scheme was and one in three had not heard about it before they got in touch with the JWCI.One in three also did not know there was a deadline for applying for the scheme or when that deadline was. Some 295 care workers were surveyed by the charity for the report.“If even a tiny fraction of the estimated EEA+ (EU, EEA and Swiss) residents are unable to apply in time, tens of thousands will lose their status overnight,” warned the report.“Without urgent action, the care sector is likely to be devastated.” More

Ministers have been urged to intervene after a mass outbreak at the DVLA’s offices in Wales, by a union declaring the government agency’s response a “scandal”. More than 350 employees at the UK vehicle licensing agency’s contact centre in Swansea tested positive in the four months to December, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to above 500.Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething is among several senior politicians to say he is “concerned about anecdotal reports” emerging from the offices – with the BBC and The Observer reporting that some symptomatic employees had been encouraged to return to work, amid an alleged “culture of fear”.Both outlets also reported complaints that “archaic” IT systems meant many employees could not work from home, and that close contacts were not always sent home to self-isolate, with workers allegedly advised to turn off their Test and Trace apps to prevent notifications of an infection risk.For those who fell ill, absences of more than 10 days have triggered a warning, The Observer reported, citing a complaint received by Public Health Wales’s outbreak control team.A DVLA spokesperson strenuously denied each of these allegations.“It is a scandal that DVLA are not doing more to reduce numbers in the workplace when Covid infections are on the rise,” said Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary, Mark Serwotka.“Our members are telling us they are scared to enter the workplace for fear of catching Covid-19.“Ministers must intervene and ensure DVLA are doing their utmost to enable staff to work from home and temporarily cease non-critical services.”Asked about Mr Serwotka’s warning and call for action at the top of government, a Department for Transport pointed to a DVLA statement and comments highlighting that there are no active cases inside the Swansea contact centre, with just four people currently self-isolating following a positive test across the 6,000-strong agency.“Staff in roles that enable them to work from home are doing so and have throughout, in line with current government advice,” the DVLA statement said. “However, in view of the essential nature of the public services we provide, some operational staff are required to be in the office where their role means they cannot work from home.”A DVLA spokesperson said the agency had extensive safety measures in line with government advice and worked closely with Public Health Wales and local health and safety agencies.It has opened an additional facility for on-site staff in Swansea, and workers are regularly reminded of the requirement to self-isolate if told to do so by the Test and Trace app, the spokesperson added.
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The government has repeatedly criticised prosecutors for doing “no more than applying the law”, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.Max Hill QC, the director of public prosecutions, defended decisions in two recent immigration cases that drew the ire of the Home Office as Priti Patel attempts to crack down on irregular journeys to Britain. In the first, the CPS dismissed charges against 69 Albanians who had been charged by the Border Force with entering the UK illegally, but had not reached the country.“In both cases, we have done no more than apply the law, which is for parliament and not us to decide,” Mr Hill told The Independent.“We’re absolutely clear that any prosecuting authority must be free, and is free, to make independent decisions following the law … that independence does lead to [opposing] positions taken by the general public or even by the Home Office. We have no difficulty in scrutiny of our decisions.”The CPS overturned prosecutions of the passengers, but maintained charges of facilitating illegal immigration against three alleged crew members.After the decision was announced, a Home Office spokesperson said it was “disappointed” that the proceedings were discontinued and that it was “working with the CPS urgently to resolve the issues raised by this case”.“Knowingly entering the UK without leave is a criminal offence and anyone who has committed such an offence should be prepared to face prosecution,” a statement sent to the media added.But Mr Hill said the passengers of migrant boats who have no role in organising or controlling crossings should not be charged, and “can be dealt with perfectly appropriately by immigration scrutiny and removal rather than prosecution”.A month later, the CPS dropped charges against seven Nigerian stowaways who had been accused of trying to hijack an oil tanker off the coast of the Isle of Wight.Police dealing with incident aboard ship in English ChannelProsecutors said mobile phone footage showed the ship and crew were not put in danger and there was no attempt to take control of the vessel.A Home Office spokesperson said it was “disappointed” by the CPS’ decision, adding: “It is frustrating that there will be no prosecution in relation to this very serious incident and the British people will struggle to understand how this can be the case.”Abusive posts were directed at the CPS’ Twitter account following the comment, with prosecutors called “f***ing clowns” and “pathetic”.Mr Hill said all cases were considered on their merits and the same legal tests, and that it would have been “quite wrong” to maintain charges which would not have survived scrutiny in court.“Initial reports that led to the military intervention suggested a hijack or possible hijack but on cold, calm review it transpired that the stowaways had not committed the criminal offence of endangering a vessel,” he added.“We do perform a valuable function, which is to ensure that cases that should not proceed, don’t proceed. That’s where our independence is absolutely critical and these recent two cases prove an absence of political interference. Rather, they prove our independence.” More

Scottish fishing industry workers descended on Whitehall on Monday to protest Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal.Footage showed dozens of large lorries driving through central London adorned with slogans showing workers’ fury after experiencing problems exporting fish to the EU.One truck was emblazoned with “Brexit Carnage”, while another said “Incompetent Government Destroying Shellfish Industry”, as they parked up just metres from Downing Street.Others had their business logos proudly displayed amid claims the sector could collapse and that fish prices have plummeted due to the bureaucracy that has left catches rotting at the border.Mark Moore from the Dartmouth Crab Company joined his Scottish colleagues for the protest and told LBC that the exporting issue was nationwide, and “we are all in this together”.He added: “The situation is almost unworkable and we need change, our industry is spiralling downwards.”Mr Moore said about 50 trucks had been due to travel to the capital. More

As Ukip welcomes Katie Hopkins as a member, Lizzie Dearden looks at the party’s journey into the far right More

The House of Lords inflicted a series of defeats on the government over the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.It would allow public authorities, ranging from police and MI5 to HMRC and the Food Standards Agency, to authorise agents and informants to commit crimes while undercover.The proposed authorisations would not only be issued in the interests of national security or preventing and detecting crime, but also preventing “disorder” and in the “interests of the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom”.In October, MPs voted by 317 votes to 256 against an amendment to limit the kind of crimes that could be authorised.But on Wednesday, the House of Lords approved the same curbs by a narrow majority of 299 votes to 284.The cross-party amendment, brought by Lord Dubs, Baroness Massey, Lord Rosser and Lord Paddick, said the new criminal conduct authorisations may not include actions that intentionally cause death or grievous bodily harm, pervert the course of justice, include rape and sexual offences or torture.Lord Paddick said: “We do need legislation to govern the tasking of police informants to commit crime, but this bill goes beyond what is reasonable.“The Liberal Democrats have managed to add important safeguards to the bill, but the sheer number of fundamental issues that have been raised from all sides should force the government to stop and think again.”Dan Dolan, of the Reprieve legal charity, said allies including the US, Australia and Canada had inserted “common sense limits” to similar laws.
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