I thank Paul Davies for his comments and that series of questions. I think we are taking a holistic approach. I think it’s very important that we do look at the tools at our disposal. Please remember this is a consultation and I will certainly consider all the responses we have before making any decisions. I’ve told officials I want it to be very quick, so the consultation will close on 10 January, and I want the refreshed programme to be in place certainly by the start of the financial year, so we’ll respond to the consultation in the spring.

You referred to the skin test that we undertake, and whilst I recognise it is the only test that’s recognised by the relevant European legislation, a recent estimate of comparative skin test performance in Great Britain established it has a specificity of 99.98 per cent. So, only one animal in 5,000 is likely to give a false-positive test result. The test has been used worldwide in very successful TB eradication programmes.

You referred to monitoring Northern Ireland. What I said was I’d been looking at the pilot over the summer. I’ve also looked at what’s gone on in Australia and in New Zealand. Australia has been declared TB free, and that’s my ambition for Wales. I think the regionalisation aspect of this is what’s very important in this, because, if we look at the areas that we’ve deemed low, intermediate and high, it’s been based on epidemiology. There will be different approaches in each one. Looking at north-west Wales, which will be a low TB area, I really believe that, if some of the measures that we’re consulting on are then put in place, that could be the first TB-free area of Wales, and we are allowed to do that within the European legislation—a member state or part of a member state is allowed to do that. So, if we look at the criteria around that, that could possibly be the first area, and I think that would be a very positive message to send out there.

So, the priority for—. You asked about the different approaches we will take for the different areas, so the priority for that area is to prevent the disease being introduced through the movement of undetected infected cattle, so to keep the incidence low and then become TB free. So, we’ll protect that area, and, because there’s very little, if any, endemic disease in that area, pre-movement testing will no longer be required for movements from that area. I will continue to have herds tested annually to make sure that we catch disease at the earliest opportunity. As I said, there’s no recognised significant reservoir of the disease in the wildlife population in that area.

In relation to the intermediate TB areas, we anticipate again, if the disease situation improved in those two areas, it’s likely the low TB area then would grow to encompass those areas. Again, we’ll test herds annually to make sure that we catch the disease at the earliest opportunity, but we need to protect those areas from it being introduced through cattle movements from the higher disease areas—I think that’s really important—and better deal with the level of disease that is already there. It’s also important that we prevent the disease from becoming established in the badger population there. Again, there’s very little evidence of TB infection in wildlife there. We’ve had only one positive badger found dead in both of the intermediate areas.

In relation to the high TB areas, we’re going to increase whole-herd testings there to six-monthly to try and find the infection earlier. Again, if there’s a high number of recurring breakdowns, it suggests either a high re-infection rate or infection that persists in the herd even after its declared TB free, because I think that’s been happening also. Local spread seems to be a significant factor. So, again, we’ve had our badger found dead survey, and, whilst we have to be careful how we interpret those results, that has confirmed the presence of TB in the badger population in those areas.