The consultation is to gather feedback on the proposed Precision Bred Variety List for England. Defra want to understand how the variety listing of precision bred agricultural and vegetable plant varieties in England will impact businesses. This consultation is of most interest for the: the plant breeding industry; research institutes; growers and farmers; seed merchants and processors. The deadline is 14th April.
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 establishes a new class of regulated products: Precision Bred Organisms. These include plants that contain genetic changes made by modern biotechnology, which could also have arisen by traditional breeding processes. The Act provides powers to amend legislation that applies to the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in England, and to enable precision bred plants to be regulated differently from GMOs.
For the main agricultural and vegetable plant varieties, including amenity grasses, a variety must be registered on the Great Britain (GB), or Northern Ireland (NI) variety lists before seed can be marketed. To implement the Precision Breeding Act, a new framework for evaluating and registering precision bred agricultural and vegetable plant varieties in England is required. As part of this framework a Precision Bred Plant Variety List for England is proposed in addition to the existing variety lists to facilitate the marketing of seed of precision bred plant varieties.