Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 6 January (HL3422) and the remarks by Earl Howe on 24 February (HL Deb, col 1621), why there is no universally agreed definition of genetic modification in humans if there is not "a scientifically based alternative" to the working definition devised by the Chief Medical Officer; and how other countries have hitherto proceeded without such a working definition.

We cannot speculate on why there is no universally agreed definition of what would constitute genetic modification in humans or how other countries have addressed this question.