UK Parliament / Open data

Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill

My Lords, we have already had a full, detailed and rich explanation of this rather large and very important group. I will make a couple of short points.

I would not presume to seek to add anything to the master class we had from the noble Lord, Lord Winston, covering his early amendments in this group. All I would suggest is to cross-reference; this is a debate we started on Monday, and I think it would be useful if we looked at the two debates together, because they address different parts of the Bill but the same crucial issue of exogenous DNA.

As for the broom cupboard or farmyard question, just because a technology is widely available—and the reality is that a lot of this technology is now becoming widely available and relatively cheap—does not mean it should be used widely and by people in broom cupboards, for example.

The amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, about appropriate records is crucial. As the noble Baroness was speaking, I was thinking about the recent, grave concern about large amounts of peer-reviewed research, for which a condition of publication from the journals is that the data and the raw data have to be deposited in places where people have access to it. The data is there, but when people go and look for it, they find it is not available. If people cannot get access to that raw data, there are immediately grave concerns about the final conclusion being presented without that data. So it is crucial that it is available.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, spoke about the animal welfare advisory body. The amendment here says that the body should rely not just on the evidence presented to it but think independently about what other problems might arise. In other contexts, we have been talking about the green revolution and the problems it has caused, and the state of our soils, water and health now. We have seen what happens when commercial interests are able to set the direction in which our agriculture and science go. It has got us to the point we are at today. That critical, independent assessment is crucial.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

826 cc677-8 

Session

2022-23

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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