To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects to respond to the consultation on bovine TB. (98685)

We issued a News Release on 12 July drawing attention to the publication of the summary of responses and the report of Citizens' Panels held to consider badger culling as part of the consultation. The consultation was invaluable in helping us to hear from all sides of the badger culling debate and our aim is to take decisions that are sustainable and practical in the long term. There are no plans to issue an additional response to the consultation.

Both reports are available on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/badgers-tbcontrols/responses-summary.pdf and http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/badgers-tbcontrols/citizens-panels.pdf.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will undertake a review to evaluate the effectiveness of the pre-movement testing for bovine tuberculosis. (98729)

[holding answer 1 November 2006]: Monitoring the effectiveness of pre-movement testing is ongoing. Key statistics are updated monthly and published on the DEFRA website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/premovement/monitoring-data.htm.