Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the legislative proposals in California (Assembly Bill 1864) and New York (Assembly Bill 3283) to mandate synthetic nucleic acid synthesis screening; and what plans they have to make the UK's current voluntary screening guidance mandatory.

The Government continues to evaluate the UK’s approach to synthetic nucleic acid screening on an ongoing basis. This is informed by consideration of international developments, including Assembly Bill 1864 in California and Assembly Bill 3283 in New York, as well as other international partners approaches to screening. In October 2024, the UK was the second country in the world to publish Guidance to promote the screening of synthetic nucleic acid customers and sequences. The Guidance delivers on the UK’s commitment to ensure responsible innovation in engineering biology by championing legitimate use and mitigating the risk of misuse of synthetic nucleic acids.