Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is his policy to align gene-editing legislation with the European Union.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government is introducing legislation to enact the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 for plants and food and feed before the end of March.

The European Commission has published a proposal that is similar in aim to the Precision Breeding Act. The department is monitoring progress on the EU’s regulatory proposal closely and engaging with the European Commission when appropriate.

Officials have met with EU counterparts several times to discuss England’s approach to precision breeding and the EU’s proposal on new genomic techniques, including through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee and through the UK-EU Joint Consultative Working Group Agri-food structured group.