Wild Justice granted permission for judicial review of badger cull in Northern Ireland

Our legal challenge against the badger cull in Northern Ireland took a step forward last Friday when we were granted permission for judicial review in the High Court.

Judicial review is a type of court proceeding where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body, in this case DAERA, Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs. The first stage of a judicial review is to apply to the court for ‘permission’ to proceed. The test for obtaining permission is that the judge considers there is an arguable case.

Our legal challenge, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Badger Group and supported by the Born Free Foundation, is that the consultation by DAERA on options to control the badger population to tackle bovine tuberculosis (bTB) did not meet the requirements for a lawful consultation. Therefore the resulting decision to choose to control the badger population by allowing farmer-led groups to shoot the free-roaming animals with rifles was also unlawful.

The presiding judge at Belfast’s High Court last Friday, The Honourable Mr Justice Scoffield, agreed that these were arguable and our judicial review challenge will be heard in court on 21st November 2022.

We also argue that DAERA Minister Edwin Poots’ decision, announced in March 2022, to allow farmers to use rifles to kill up to 4,000 badgers a year, is unlawful because he issued the Article 13 (power to destroy wildlife) order under the Diseases of Animals 1981 Order without making sure that there is no reasonably practicable alternative way of dealing with bTB in Northern Ireland.

Mr Justice Scoffield ‘stayed’ a decision on this legal point, in other words it was neither rejected nor accepted but will be considered at a later date, perhaps when the first two grounds are decided.

We are grateful to our brilliant legal team (Carol Day & Ricardo Gama from Leigh Day, and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh & David Wolfe KC from Matrix Chambers) with Phoenix Law acting as agents in Northern Ireland.

This case was only possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters who contributed £45K to our crowdfunder earlier this year, enabling us to take on the legal challenge.