With our friends and colleagues at the Badger Trust we wrote to Defra about their consultation on 22 March – click here – and Defra told us that they would respond by Friday 19 April, ahead of the closing date of the consultation of Monday 22 April. Defra did indeed respond yesterday, our lawyers received a response at 17:07 yesterday.
Defra has extended the consultation period to 13 May – a three week extension. This is already clear on some parts of the Defra website, for example https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb/bovine-tb-consultation-wildlife-cattle/ :
But not on the page at which you are more likely to arrive if you simply search for the consultation https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tb-future-badger-control-policy-and-cattle-measure-proposals :
Lengthening a flawed consultation is something, but our original concerns with the validity of this consultation remain (and also see our more recent blog – click here). We will be having urgent discussions with our legal team and our friends in the Badger Trust early next week. Watch this space!