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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on UK science, plant breeding and food production of changes to the regulatory regime for plant breeding techniques after the UK leaves the EU.

There are two EU regulatory regimes which have a particular bearing on plant breeding in the UK. These are the controls on the marketing of new plant varieties, and the controls on the release of genetically modified organisms. The Government wants to ensure that we have science and evidence-based legislation in place which allows our plant science and breeding sector to thrive in the post-EU environment.