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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on trade with the EU of the proposal to authorise the use of gene-editing technologies in agriculture and food and drink manufacturing in England.

Defra’s recent genetic technologies consultation sought information on the implications of not regulating organisms produced by genetic editing and other genetic technologies as GMOs if they could have been produced through traditional breeding methods which included impacts on trade.

The consultation ended on 17 March and we are currently analysing the responses. A full Government response will be published within three months.