Bovine Tuberculosis

Thank you, Mr. Olner, for calling me to open this important debate on bovine tuberculosis. I initiated the debate in my capacity as chairman of the all-party group on dairy farmers. I set up the group a few years ago, and we now have more than 170 Members. I am pleased to say that it is a cross-party group. We work together extremely well in fighting for the cause of dairy farmers. I am pleased to see the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) in his place, as he is an active member of the group. The National Farmers Union has calculated that a total of 40,000 cattle will be slaughtered in our country this year as a result of bovine TB. In the county of Shropshire, the situation is equally dire. In 1997, 47 cattle were slaughtered there as a result of bovine TB. This year, conservative estimates put the Shropshire figure at 1,600. I have repeatedly mentioned the figures in the House. To go from 47 to 1,600 cattle slaughtered a year in Shropshire alone is phenomenal. Many farmers in my constituency have been brought to their knees. I do not use that expression lightly, because I feel passionately about the issue. They have been brought to their knees not only by the Rural Payments Agency but predominantly by the rampant spread of bovine tuberculosis throughout Shropshire. The disease is clearly out of control. We need the Government to take immediate, well thought-out and strategic action. I was devastated when the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced in the House that there would be no cull of badgers. What really concerns me is that local communities and local councils are not allowed to make decisions, or at least to be party to the decision-making process. We should devolve responsibility and a certain amount of accountability to local councils. That is what happens in Germany and other countries. Their Governments understand that the situation varies throughout the country, and they allow certain regions to make their own decisions. I should have thought that the Government would want to devolve responsibility, as culling badgers is such a controversial issue. In Shropshire, I would call for a limited cull of badgers in the triangle formed by Pontesbury, Minsterley and Westbury on the Shropshire-Wales border, which is where bovine TB is as its most acute and rampant. That would show whether a cull might work. If the Government had given us the power, that is where I would have used it. As it is, I have to joke with farmers in my constituency about chasing the badgers across the border into Wales. The Government have given the Welsh Assembly autonomy and responsibility, but they will not give it to us in the west midlands. They give the Welsh the ability to deal with these things in their own way. Indeed, in conjunction with Plaid Cymru, the socialist Members of the Assembly have decided to have a limited cull of badgers. It is frustrating to live cheek by jowl with a Welsh community that has listened to the advice of scientists and is having a limited cull, when just across the border in Shropshire, we are not allowed to do so.