To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the impact of pre-movement testing on the level of bovine tuberculosis in national livestock herds. (227340)

We are continuously monitoring the impacts of pre-movement testing and key statistics are published on the DEFRA website each month. Evidence to date is encouraging and shows that new TB incidents are being prevented by pre-movement tests as well as Government-funded routine surveillance tests. The policy is also picking up infection earlier in high risk herds. Latest published data show that pre-movement testing led to the detection of 834 reactors in 458 herds in England between March 2006 and the end of July 2008.