Producing food safely matters, it matters for the environment, welfare, farmers, consumers and the hospitality and catering industry. So it is good news that the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a report after considering the draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022.

The instrument, laid by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), proposes to remove the legal requirement for obtaining the Secretary of State’s consent, completing a risk assessment and conducting a public consultation before releasing plants with genetic modifications, which could have occurred naturally or been produced by traditional breeding, into the environment for non-marketing purposes.