The Badger Trust is back in court today with a new legal challenge over the British Government’s badger cull policy.

It is seeking a High Court ruling that there has been an unlawful failure to put in place an independent expert panel to oversee this year’s planned cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

Trust lawyers contend the panel is needed to assess properly the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of the culling operation.

They argue a court ruling is required before decisions are taken in respect of any further culls around the country.

The application for judicial review is against the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and also Natural England.

The trust says it has received strong support from some members of the Independent Expert Panel set up by the Government to monitor last year’s cull.

As well as the hearing inside the court, protesters will gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London to draw attention to the case – key speakers include broadcaster and naturalist Bill Oddie.

Dominic Dyer, the trust’s chief executive and policy advisor at Care for the Wild, said in a statement: “Defra have done all they can to prevent this judicial review case going to the High Court and have failed.

“Their refusal to put in place any independent monitoring of the badger culls due to take place in Gloucestershire and Somerset over the next few months against the advice of the Independent Expert Panel they set up is a national disgrace.

“The caring compassionate British public will not remain silent, whilst poorly trained NFU contract gunmen move through our countryside at night shooting badgers with rifles and shotguns without any independent monitoring or scrutiny.

“We know from last year’s culls that many badgers were wounded and suffered long painful deaths in a disastrous operation, which proved a complete and utter failure on scientific, economic and humaneness grounds.”