The UK Is Developing Its Approach To Deregulating Gene Editing In Plants

Last year, the UK enacted new legislation in the form of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 to pursue a post-Brexit deregulatory agenda with respect to "precision breeding". New genomic techniques (NGTs) encompassed by precision breeding can produce targeted genetic changes that could have occurred through traditional breeding and natural processes. This differs from previous techniques as it does not involve the insertion of DNA from separate species and is therefore generally considered safer.

Despite taking legislative action, there are concerns that the UK's deregulatory ambitions are not being lived up to due to the lack of capacity and funding of regulators, such as the Food Standards Agency (FSA), causing a bottleneck in bringing products to market. There have not yet been any gene-edited foods placed on the market since the legislation was enacted.