Natural England has licensed and authorised 11 new badger control areas to begin operations in 2020. It has also authorised the licence holders to resume operations in 33 existing badger control areas in 2020. Licence holders met all the criteria specified in Defra’s guidance to Natural England, dated August 2020.

Natural England has reissued the Annex A for 3 licences due to a change to their control areas as licensed in 2019. These areas were 34-Cheshire, 37-Devon and 40-Herefordshire.

It has also reissued the Annex B for all existing licences from area 11 to area 43 (inclusive). This follows a review of the conditions relating to licensed actions on or around protected sites.

Table 1: Badger control areas authorised in 2020

Licence holders carry out operations under a 4-year licence. This allows badger control to take place in the licensed control area every year between 1 June and 31 January inclusive.

The licence holder will decide the start date for control operations within this period.

Natural England has confirmed to the licence holders the minimum and maximum numbers of badgers they can remove.

Protected sites listed in the Annex Bs are not necessarily part of any active operations. These can and will only occur on protected sites where the landowner or occupier has granted permission.

The licences only permit badger control to take place outside these closed seasons:

• controlled shooting – 1 February to 31 May
• cage-trapping and shooting – 1 December to 31 May

Natural England has today (Monday 7 September) published licences for areas that will undertake badger control operations in England this autumn, in accordance with statutory guidance given by the Secretary of State. This includes the reauthorisation of licences for 33 existing areas alongside licences for 11 additional areas.

Earlier this year, the government published its response to the Godfray Review which sets out the next phase of its 25-year bTB eradication strategy. The response outlines out the government’s intention to phase out intensive badger culling in the next few years, while ensuring that wildlife control remains a tool that can be deployed where the scientific evidence supports it. Bovine TB remains the greatest animal health threat that England faces today, with more than 30,000 cattle slaughtered each year due to infection.

This operational publication is a continuation of the long-term strategy to tackle the animal disease Bovine TB which was published in April 2014.

“Bovine TB is one of the most difficult and intractable animal health challenges that the UK faces today, causing considerable trauma for farmers and costing taxpayers over £100 million every year.

“No one wants to continue the cull of a protected species indefinitely. That is why we are accelerating other elements of our strategy, including vaccination and improved testing so that we can eradicate this insidious disease and start to phase out badger culling in England.”

All applications received were carefully assessed to ensure that each cull company has suitable arrangements and plans in place to carry out an operation that is safe, effective and humane.

The government’s response to the Godfray Review outlined the need for a combined approach which includes tighter cattle movement controls, regular testing, as well as badger and cattle vaccination to eradicate the disease in England by 2038.

In July, the government announced that world-leading bovine tuberculosis (bTB) TB cattle vaccination trials are set to get underway in England and Wales as a result of a major breakthrough by government scientists. These trials enable work to accelerate towards planned deployment of a cattle vaccine by 2025. One fully developed and approved, a cattle vaccine will provide another major step forward in the government’s strategy to phase out intensive culling.

The government recently awarded £500,000 grant funding for projects that develop new tools to diagnose tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. The programme, run by Defra on behalf of England, Scotland and Wales, will fund innovative research projects using cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning aimed at detecting infection in cattle herds faster.

The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 was laid on 28 August 2020 and came into force on 29 August 2020

The regulations amend Schedule 29 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 to require residential landlords to give tenants 6 months’ notice of their intention to seek possession, except in the most serious cases. These regulations will only apply in England.

The department wrote to chief executives of local authorities, chief housing officers and chief officers of children’s services in England about the amending regulations on 7 September 2020.

We recognise that some learners taking vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) have experienced lost teaching and training time as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and that appropriate arrangements need to be put in place to mitigate the impact of this disruption and respond to any ongoing or future public health measures.

We consulted on proposals to permit awarding organisations to make adjustments to their qualifications and assessments, which took account of the different ways in which the qualifications are used – ranging from those taken alongside, or instead of general qualifications, to those used to signal occupational competency.

Responses to the consultation have been carefully considered and given the high level of agreement to the proposals, we have today, 7 September, confirmed our decisions and that the proposed arrangements are being implemented in full.

Dame Glenys Stacey, Acting Chief Regulator, Ofqual, said:

In many cases, awarding organisations will be able to deliver VTQs as normal, but where this is not possible it is important that any changes continue to deliver qualifications that are a valid and reliable indication of knowledge, understanding, skills or practical competence.

We will continue to work with awarding organisations to support their decision-making on when adaptations are necessary and what adaptations are appropriate for different qualifications. The work we are already doing to facilitate the development of common approaches across similar sectors and types of qualifications will also continue.

As government’s expectation is that assessments will take place during 2020/21, awarding organisations are being allowed to adapt assessments to enable them to better cater for any future disruptions. We will monitor plans they are putting in place, ensuring that, as far as possible, arrangements are in place to cope with different potential scenarios depending on the progression of the pandemic. It is therefore not necessary to permit awarding organisations to offer calculated results for assessments taken in 2020/21.

Our second draft extended extraordinary regulatory framework, on which we have launched a consultation today, sets out the regulatory arrangements and guidance with which awarding organisations must comply when adapting their qualifications.

Awarding organisations must consider whether their assessments and qualifications can progress as they normally would, or if there is need to adapt assessments and qualifications. This could include widening assessment windows to provide greater flexibility, streamlining assessments to free up time for teaching and learning, or changing some assessment requirements to deal with the impact of any ongoing social distancing measures, such as group performances. However, if they can progress as normal, qualifications and assessments will not be adapted.

It is important that centres receive information about adaptations in a timely and consistent way and we are working with stakeholders to agree deadlines by when awarding organisations will provide qualification specific information to their centres.

Our approach seeks to ensure that, as far as possible, learners taking VTQs and other general qualifications, have the opportunity to receive a fair result and are not disadvantaged by the longer term impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The government is encouraging the food industry to support the national effort against COVID-19 and obesity, with voluntary calorie reduction guidelines to make it easier for the nation to choose healthier options in everyday meals and foods.

Voluntary guidelines for industry are a key commitment of the government’s obesity strategy and have a renewed urgency following evidence that being overweight can increase the health risks from COVID-19. A recent Public Health England (PHE) report found that being severely overweight increases people’s risk of hospitalisation, Intensive Care Unit admission and death from COVID-19.

High calories in many products in a broad range of everyday meals and foods are one of the reasons why many of us are consuming more calories than we need.

Calories can be particularly high in takeaway and restaurant food, now a regular part of our diets. For example, a pizza for one sold at a restaurant or takeaway can have as many as 2,320 calories compared to 1,368 calories when purchased from shops or supermarkets. Research suggests that when someone eats out or has a takeaway meal they consume on average 200 more calories per day.

The food industry’s efforts are crucial to providing healthier food and drink choices for consumers, and calorie reduction forms part of this. It is recommended that the following calorie reductions be made voluntarily:

• 20% calorie reduction for most meal categories in the eating out of home, takeaway and delivery sector, alongside a maximum calorie guideline for all categories
• for children’s meal bundles, a 10% calorie reduction ambition has been set to reflect progress already made
• 10% calorie reduction ambition for retailers making ready meals, chips and garlic bread, alongside a maximum calorie guideline for all categories
• for crisps and savoury snacks, a 5% ambition
• combined guidelines for both sectors have been set for sandwiches (5% ambition) and pizza and pastry products (20% ambition)

New voluntary salt reduction goals have also been published today to encourage businesses to further reduce salt levels in the foods that contribute most to salt intakes.

Consuming too much salt is a major cause of high blood pressure which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Despite good progress in some categories, more needs to be done to help reduce salt intake from the current average of 8.4g per day towards the recommended 6g – a reduction of around a third of a teaspoon, which would help to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

A second progress report on salt reduction, which shows good progress in some categories, such as bread and breakfast cereals, has also been published.

Public Health Minister Jo Churchill said: “We can all do our bit to stay healthy, to help protect us from coronavirus and take pressure off the NHS.

“The food industry can play their part, by making it as easy as possible for everyone to eat more healthily. These guidelines will help them take positive action.”

Dr Alison Tedstone, Chief Nutritionist for PHE, said: “Eating food and drink that’s higher in calories than people realise is one of the reasons why many of us are either overweight or obese.

“This is about broadening choice for consumers, as well as making the healthier choice the easy choice. Progress to date on sugar and salt reduction has shown that this can happen without compromising on taste and quality.”

A range of measures were recently announced as part of the government’s new obesity strategy, including calorie labelling at large restaurants, cafes and takeaways, and PHE’s Better Health campaign to encourage people to lose weight, get active and eat better.

Industry’s progress against the programme’s ambitions will be monitored with reports on calorie and salt reduction expected in 2022. The government remains committed to further action if results are not seen.

Recommend calorie intake for adults

An ideal daily intake of calories varies depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things. Generally, the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 calories a day for men.

About the calorie reduction programme

PHE discussed initial proposals for the calorie reduction programme with relevant non-governmental groups and businesses in 2018. As part of the government’s childhood obesity plan, PHE was asked to encourage businesses to start considering calorie reduction ahead of the programme and guidelines. Since several rounds of significant stakeholder engagement, PHE reviewed stakeholder feedback and conducted further analysis to inform the final programme.

The food industry regularly reviews and reformulates product recipes and menus. The changes it is being expected to include are an opportunity to feed into their established product review and innovation programmes. There has been some good progress in salt and sugar reduction where this has been the case and regular, transparent monitoring will underpin where there is future progress.

Calorie examples

Research shows that a pizza for one sold at shops or supermarkets can have as many as 1,368 calories and this rises to 2,320 calories when purchased from a restaurant or takeaway. For main meals, the calorie content ranges from 205 to 775 in supermarkets, whereas eating out options ranged from 385 calories but, in some cases, were over 2,000 calories.

About the salt reduction programme

Work on salt reduction began in the UK, in 2004, following advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) that recommended population average salt intakes should be reduced to 6g per day to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and hence cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The 2024 targets are the fifth set of voluntary salt reduction targets for individual categories of food – previous targets were published in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2014. The foods covered by the salt targets are the main contributors to dietary salt intakes in adults in the UK. Targets include average and maximum targets per 100g of food or drink set for all sectors, and maximum per serving targets set specifically for the eating out of home sector.

Retailers continue to demonstrate good progress, meeting 83% of average and 90% of maximum targets, compared with manufacturers who met 35% and 73% respectively. For the out of home sector, 74% of products met the maximum targets set specifically for the sector.