Guidance

Submitting a release notice for a precision bred plant

Published 13 November 2025

Applies to England

This guidance relates to the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 (the act) and the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

If you plan to release precision bred plants into the environment for research and development purposes, you must notify the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). To do this, you will need to submit a ‘release notice’.

Defra will publish information about releases on a public precision breeding register.

Check you can meet release requirements 

Before you notify Defra, you must make sure you can meet the requirements for releasing precision bred plants, which include: 

• confirming the plant meets the definition of a precision bred plant set out in the ACRE guidance on producing precision bred plants
• not marketing material from the plant 
• taking any necessary steps to prevent precision-bred material from your trial entering the food or animal feed chains 

If you plan to market your plants, you will instead need to follow the guidance on submitting a marketing notice.

Scope of release notices 

Releasing multiple plants 

You can submit one notice for multiple precision-bred plants if they: 

• are from the same species 
• only contain the types of genetic changes described in the release notice under the ‘general description’ heading 

These requirements are outlined in regulation 3(7) of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

Continued research and development 

You can use the same precision-bred plant in multiple research and development trials without re-notifying Defra as long as all genetic changes it contains are included on the release notice.  

This includes if you: 

• share material from the precision bred plant with anyone not named on your release notice for research and development trials – as the original notifier, you are still responsible for ensuring precision-bred material is not marketed 
• develop a new plant line using modern biotechnology that has any combination of the types of genetic changes described in your release notice 

You must identify all genetic changes before each release. If there are genetic changes not included on the release notice, you will need to submit a new release notice before releasing the plant.

How to submit your release notice 

To submit a release notice, you will need to fill out a template. This template ensures your notice meets the information requirements set out in schedules 1 and 3 of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025. 

Email pb-regulation@defra.gov.uk for a copy of the template. You should return your completed template to the same address.

When to submit your release notice 

Submit your notice at least 20 calendar days before the planned start of your research and development trial.  

Once Defra receives your completed release notice, they will confirm receipt.  

You can release the plant 20 calendar days after this confirmation.

What to include in your release notice 

This section provides more detail on what to include in your template.  

Your answers should be descriptive and explanatory. You are not expected to provide primary experimental data.  

However, you should keep this data and make it available in the event of any enforcement measures related to the notified precision bred plants.

1 and 2. Notifier information  

You must provide the name, address, email and telephone number of the person who is proposing to release the precision bred plants from under their control.

This is the person or organisation that will have overall legal responsibility for ensuring the release meets the requirements of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

If an organisation has overall legal responsibility, you must also provide the details of a person who may be contacted about the release notice. You can refer to their position rather than their name (such as the ‘Authorisation lead’).

Defra will not publish personal details on the public precision breeding register.

3. Description of other persons

You might provide seed or other reproductive material to others outside your organisation to carry out research and development trials on your behalf.

In these cases, you should provide a brief description of these ‘other persons’ involved in the release. For example, “The release will involve farmers and other research institutes”.

The developer identified in section 1 is still responsible for ensuring the release complies with the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

4. General description

You must give and describe:

• the genus and species of the notified plants
• types of genetic changes made
• techniques of modern biotechnology used to introduce the changes
• how these changes affect characteristics of the plants

The general description of any precision-bred organism cannot be regarded as commercially confidential, as established by section 18(4)(b) of the act. Defra will publish this information on the public precision breeding register.

Types of genetic changes and effect on characteristics

You should give an overview of the genetic changes made and how these have altered specific characteristics.

You are not expected to provide names of genes or locations of non-coding regions you have targeted.

Your description of the type of genetic changes should include:

• the number of targeted insertions, deletions, substitutions or inversions introduced by modern biotechnology
• the molecular effects of genetic changes made
• a summary of how these changes are expected to alter characteristics of the precision bred plant – for example, “improved powdery mildew resistance”

If cisgenic or intragenic constructs have been inserted, you should provide:

• the copy number
• a summary of how the inserted constructs alter or introduce new characteristics to the organism

You can release precision-bred plants with different combinations of genetic changes to investigate the effect of these changes on the characteristics of interest. You are not expected to specify the combinations of changes, as long as you have described every genetic change.

Modern biotechnology techniques

You must briefly describe how you made the genetic changes. For example, you should outline if you have used site-directed nucleases and their activity has been mediated via stable transformation.

If you have inserted cisgenic or intragenic constructs, you must state the method of construct delivery. For example, this could be “agrobacterium mediated” or “biolistic particle delivery”.

Multiple precision bred plants

An example of a general description for a release notice covering several precision bred plants could be:

The group are investigating Solanum lycopersicon (tomato) with improved disease resistance to powdery mildew. Plants were transformed with CRISPR-Cas9 and appropriate guide RNAs (using agrobacterium) to target 4 different genes which encode susceptibility to powdery mildew.

Incorrect repair by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) led to indels being introduced at target sites, which are expected to result in early termination of encoded proteins. Different combinations of these genetic changes will be assessed for efficacy in improved resistance to powdery mildew.

5. Confirmations

You must confirm that you will take measures to prevent precision-bred material from being marketed.

This includes limiting the possibility that precision-bred seed or other reproductive material can enter the food or animal feed chains through:

• cross-pollination
• persistence of vegetative material at the site

You can include a description of the measures planned, but this is not required.

In this section, you must also confirm that you have:

• read the ACRE guidance on producing precision bred plants
• assessed that all plants you plan to release meet the criteria for precision bred organisms in part 1 of the act

After you submit your release notice

Defra will check your submitted release notice to make sure it meets requirements.

If it does not, they will contact you for more information.

If it does, Defra will:

• send you confirmation of receipt
• give you a reference number
• publish information from your release notice to the precision breeding register within 20 days of receipt

Defra will not publish personal information on the register. Details they will publish are listed in section 10 (3) of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

Section 18 of the act outlines how Defra will treat any commercially confidential information provided in your release notice.