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Question for Department of Health

UIN HL5364, tabled on 3 March 2015

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 6 January (HL3422) and the remarks by Earl Howe on 24 February (HL Deb, col 1621), why there is no universally agreed definition of genetic modification in humans if there is not "a scientifically based alternative" to the working definition devised by the Chief Medical Officer; and how other countries have hitherto proceeded without such a working definition.

Answered on

17 March 2015

We cannot speculate on why there is no universally agreed definition of what would constitute genetic modification in humans or how other countries have addressed this question.