UK plan to adopt gene editing technology clashes with EU deal

UK plans to adopt the latest gene-editing technology face delays after Downing Street fears they will clash with EU law if a deal with Brussels to remove border checks on food and plant products.

Two senior EU diplomats told the Financial Times that Brussels had informally warned UK The government said such a check-cutting deal would not be compatible with current British plans for gene editing technology.

The previous Conservative government passed legislation to ease gene editing rules in 2023, hailing it as a major benefit of Brexit that would attract investment into an emerging sector estimated to be worth £1bn a year.

But the current Labor administration, which has set out ambitions to reduce barriers to trade with the EU, has yet to introduce measures that would give force to the 2023 law.

Gene editing involves specific changes to a plant’s existing DNA and is used to develop crops that are more resistant to pests, diseases and the effects of climate change.

“We don’t want things to stop progressing because of a potential discussion that we don’t know is happening,” said Anthony Hopkins, head of policy at the British Society of Plant Breeders. “The delay and uncertainty is terrible for investment.”

Labor Govt said in September That it would introduce the necessary secondary legislation to enable companies to bring gene-edited products to market, claiming it would put the agricultural sector “at the forefront of global innovation”.

But even after four months, the necessary measures to give practical effect to the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, 2023 have not been introduced.

The delay has raised fears among scientific and business leaders that plans have been put on hold before the UK negotiates a wider deal with the EU to remove border checks on food and plant products, known as the Veterinary Agreement.

Before Brussels indicated It is open to a veterinary agreement, but only if the UK agrees to so-called “dynamic alignment” with EU food and plant protection rules that would require the UK to automatically copy EU law into its own statute book.

EU regulations require one Gene edited plants To go through a laborious and expensive approval process.

European Union proposals to create a streamlined system for gene editing have been blocked for a year by several member states who say the consequences for conventional crops are unknown.

In a sign of growing concern in the UK agricultural industry, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture this week sent a letter signed by more than 50 leading scientists, politicians and investors, urging UK Food Minister Daniel Zeichner. Committed to a “firm timetable” for introducing secondary legislation.

“The Precision Reproductive Act is progressive, coherent and evidence-based. “There can be no certainty that the EU will end up with similar measures,” they warned in the letter, adding that a vetting deal with Brussels could take “many years”.

Defra declined to comment when asked if the legislation was being delayed as a result of warnings from Brussels. It has declined to repeat on record its earlier promises to introduce legislation or set a timetable for doing so.

George Freeman, a former Conservative science minister, and a key signatory to the letter, said ministers needed to set a timetable for implementation. “Prospective investors and innovators need clarity and certainty, not delay and guesswork,” he added.

Professor Jonathan Napier, science director at Rothamsted Research, the UK’s leading agricultural research institute, said it would be a mistake to align the UK’s regulatory system with the EU’s.

“There is a real danger that we will become ‘rule takers’ rather than ‘rulers’, as we have no input or say in the position the EU wants to take on gene editing,” he said.

But former UK Commerce Department official Ally Rennison, now at consultancy SEC Newgate, said the government’s apparent caution about introducing gene editing legislation was unwarranted and could broker a compromise in talks that could start this year.

“The EU is already moving forward with its own similar version of gene editing, and any differences could be ironed out during negotiations,” he added.

The European Commission declined to comment.