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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to assess the negative effects of gene editing on (a) agricultural and food systems and (b) agroecological and organic farmers.

Gene Editing (GE) describes a range of technologies that can achieve genetic changes of the type that are selected for in traditional breeding, such as insertions, deletions and, occasionally, translocations of genetic material.

Defra's 10-week consultation of the regulation of genetic technologies sought views and evidence on GE including its application in a wide range of farming and agri-food systems, and the use of GE to produce genetic changes which could have been introduced by traditional breeding. The consultation included questions on the health and environmental impacts of these technologies and we have asked independent scientific experts for advice on any safety issues raised. The consultation ended on 17 March and a Government response will be published within three months of it closing.