Wildlife groups Badger Trust and Wild Justice have begun a legal challenge after the government’s nature conservation agency, Natural England, issued additional badger culling licences against scientific advice from its own experts.

The 26 supplementary badger cull licences authorise farmers to kill badgers from June to November, despite Natural England’s director of science advising that there was “no justification” for the action.

Natural England stated that one of its reasons for issuing the licences was to maintain the confidence of farmers in the government’s disease reduction programmes, as set out by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.