Badgers in the High Court: An update on our case from Rosie Wood, Chair of Badger Trust

Badger Trust and Wild Justice attended a High Court Judicial Review hearing challenging Natural England’s decision to issue supplementary cull licences in 2024.

Badger Trust and Wild Justice were in the High Court yesterday for the Judicial Review hearing first initiated in May 2024, challenging the basis of the decision by Natural England to grant Supplementary Badger Cull licences in spring 2024 after receiving written advice from DEFRA that not granting the licences would damage farmers' confidence in Government policy. 

The judge, Mr Justice Fordham, will now consider all of the evidence and provide a written judgment in the coming weeks. 

It's our third time in court for this case - the renewal hearing was last May, and the costs hearing was heard and decided in our favour last October. 

Bringing a Judicial Review from first being given permission by the court to be heard (the stage at which the court - no one else - decides if your case has any merit), through to actually having the case heard, is not the easy or casual activity some of the press and others would like the public to think it is. Far from it. 

For matters like this,  what factors can Natural England legitimately take into account when granting companies a licence to kill badgers? 

There's no other way to determine the facts than to go to court to review Natural England's decision. And, as all Judicial Reviews are an exercise in examining how a decision was made after it's been taken, they are inevitably retrospective in nature. The point is to determine whether the decision was taken lawfully and, therefore, to ensure that any future decisions will be taken lawfully. 

The Judge, Mr Justice Fordham, also heard the last two parts of this case. 

In October, Mr Justice Fordham found in favour of Badger Trust and Wild Justice against Natural England when Natural England tried to triple Badger Trust’s costs and double Wild Justice’s if we lost the Judicial Review hearing. 

Speaking personally, that attempt by Natural England felt to me rather petty and almost as though they wanted to frighten off any small charity from challenging them in court. ‘Take us to court - if you dare’ seemed to be their message. So that case was not just a victory for Badger Trust and Wild Justice, but also an important case for other small charities and for individual citizens who might in the future need to challenge a state decision for the benefit of the wider public good. 

Win or lose, the wider public good was served today by the full Judicial Review hearing and the diligence and case preparation of our legal team at Leigh Day and our lead Barrister David Wolfe KC of Matrix Chambers, as well as the attention and rigour shown by Mr Justice Fordham for the entire day. 

So we came away feeling satisfied with the day's proceedings and incredibly grateful for the endless, well-informed and good-humoured support for badgers shown by our colleagues in Wildlife Justice and Leigh Day. When I say we couldn't have got this far without them, I really do mean it. 

And thank you to all of you who make it possible for Badger Trust to take on these cases to defend Badgers. Your support remains invaluable 

Once the judgment has been received, we will be sharing further updates with you.