The government has confirmed that the legislation needed to implement new precision breeding rules will be introduced to parliament by the end of March.
Defra Secretary Steve Reed confirmed the timetable for the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 today at the Oxford Farming Conference.
However, the end of March date relates only to the implementation of precision breeding in plants, not to farmed animals which are also covered by the England-only Act.
It comes after a cross-party group of MPs sent a letter to the government calling for a clearer time frame for the roll out of the post-Brexit legislation.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture's (APPGSTA) letter was signed by more than 65 politicians, scientists and investors.
It followed reports that EU-UK realignment talks could delay or even block plans to press ahead with the new gene editing rules in England.
But APPGSTA chair, George Freeman MP said the timetable was 'very good news' for the farming industry, investors and innovators.
"The Act is progressive, coherent and evidence-based, and will help unlock the promise of these critical technologies in accelerating access to the agricultural innovation needed to boost food security," he said.
"It will allow the first precision bred products to be commercialised, and for the market to demonstrate that it can deal with diverging regulations on an international basis, as is already the case for a range of agricultural technologies and inputs."
Mr Freeman called on the government to bring forward the parallel implementing rules for farmed animals at the earliest possible opportunity.
He said this was urgently needed to enable research using gene editing techniques to tackle virulent livestock diseases, such as bird flu and African swine fever.
"Through the Act, we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate regulatory leadership on a global stage, and to put our agriculture sector at the cutting edge of innovation across the world," he concluded.
It comes as a project trialling precision-bred cereal crops on commercial farms in England - the first time in Europe - is currently underway.
The seed harvested from plots at the John Innes Centre near Norwich will be multiplied in 2025 to enable farmers to grow trials of the crop the following year.
Tom Allen-Stevens, Oxfordshire farmer who is taking part in the project, said new technologies were 'incredibly important' for farming and food production.
He said: “We need to produce more nutritious food with fewer resources and with less impact on the environment. Scientists have been developing new crop varieties that could help us rise to that challenge.
"This project will bring those varieties from the laboratory to farmers’ fields where we can fully assess their potential, explore barriers to their adoption and pave the way for future innovation.”
