Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue funding regulatory sandboxes for engineering biology beyond February 2027, including the Food Standards Agency's cell-cultivated products regulatory sandbox; and what assessment they have made of the impact of ending such funding on the UK's competitiveness in engineering biology.

Government is committed to regulatory innovation for engineering biology, as set out in the Modern Industrial Strategy Digital and Technologies Sector Plan. As part of this commitment the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund supports regulators to build expertise, improve regulatory clarity and strengthen business confidence. The latest round of the Fund supported a Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency-led sandbox on engineered bacteriophages, running until late 2027. A new engineering biology sandbox in cosmetics was launched in September 2026 by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. We continue to assess impacts from sandboxes.