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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of precision breeding on market concentration in the agricultural sector.

The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 will reduce barriers to entry for businesses, evening the playing field between SMEs and large multinationals in the agricultural sector.

Internationally, countries that have chosen to regulate precision bred products differently from Genetically Modified Organisms have seen a ‘democratisation’ of the technology, leading to a greater proportion of applications being submitted by SMEs and local businesses.

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