Making our Case to the High Court

August 16, 2025 by Staff Reporter

This week, we took a major step forward in our legal challenge to the UK Government’s decision to deregulate genetically modified “precision bred” foods and crops.

We have now filed our full legal case and evidence bundle with the High Court – a substantial file running to 778 pages. This evidence brings together scientific, legal and policy arguments that the Government has so far ignored. We now hope the Court will give this weighty evidence the close attention it deserves.

While Beyond GM is the lead claimant in this case, our co-claimants represent a powerful alliance of civil society, consumers and farmers/farm businesses, all united in defending the integrity of our food system, the rights of the public and the protection of the environment.

We are also supported by a superb legal team at Leigh Day and Matrix Chambers who have worked tirelessly to bring the case together.

Filing the evidence marks the start of the permission stage of a judicial review. At this stage, a judge will decide – based on the papers – whether our case is arguable and should proceed to a full hearing. The Government has 21 days to respond, and the permission decision can take several weeks or even months.

We’ve come a long way – but there is farther to go. Please help by donating what you can and spreading the word. See below for more details.

Why this matters
Our case is about more than just one set of regulations. It’s about protecting our right to know what’s in our food and how that food is produced, safeguarding farmers’ and food producers’ livelihoods and ensuring that our environment is not put at risk by the release of untested and untraceable genetically modified organisms.

Our arguments focus on how the new Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 – which creates a new and largely unregulated category of GMOs (known as ‘precision bred organisms’, or PBOs) – are unlawful, unsafe and damaging. Among our key concerns:

No testing or verification. With no requirement for independent safety checks or environmental assessments, the regulations rely on developer self-certification of how these ‘precision bred’ GMOs have been produced, what they are and how safe they are.
No labelling or traceability. Consumers, farmers and businesses are prevented from making informed choices and thereby avoiding these GMOs if they wish to.
Exemption from environmental protections. Precision bred GMOs are excluded from the rules governing environmental damage liability, making it harder to seek redress if harm occurs.
Threats to organic farming and trade. Organic businesses will face massive problems in keeping these GMOs out of their supply chains and verifying their GMO-free status, threatening domestic and export sales, especially to the EU, where these organisms are still regulated as GMOs.
Failure to uphold public rights. The regulations remove opportunities for public participation and access to information, breaching the UK’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, and removing the right to choose, to object and to be consulted about what’s in food and the environment.
Ignoring conservation law. The regulations allow agricultural and non-agricultural ‘precision bred’ GMOs to be released into the environment without assessing impacts on protected habitats and species.
Overstepping legal powers. The new regulations go beyond what Parliament authorised in the 2023 Act, weakening safety safeguards instead of strengthening them.

Because of our sustained work on this issue over the past five years – tracking the legislation, engaging with policymakers and gathering evidence – Beyond GM has stepped forward to defend transparency, accountability and the public’s right to know, even when others have held back.

We have the depth of knowledge and the readiness – and, importantly, the willingness – to act. Moreover, we know that our supporters expect us to act. Our supporters have demonstrated that they understand what’s at stake; now we hope others will step up too.

How you can help
We want to thank every one of you who helped us reach our first funding goal of £38,575 in record time. We now have our sights firmly set on our next funding goal.

Taking on the Government is never easy – and it’s never cheap. We can only continue this fight with the backing of people like you. Our next funding goal is the full £85,000 to see the case through to the end. Please, if you can, donate to our legal action today. You can do this via:

Our fighting fund at CrowdJustice
The PayPal donate button on our home page
Send a cheque made out to Beyond GM Ltd to: Stop Hidden GMOs c/o Beyond GM, 99 Brentwood Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 7ET.

We also hope you will:

Share this update with friends, family and networks.
Talk to others about why food transparency and environmental integrity matter to you.
Bring others on board.
Sign our petition and encouraging others to do so
Share our posts at @Beyond_GM on X and on Bluesky and Facebook.

Every contribution – financial, practical or by spreading the word – strengthens our case and shows the Court that this is an issue the public cares deeply about.

We’ll keep you updated at every step. Thank you for standing with us. Together, we can continue to demand that decisions about our food system are made with transparency, accountability and public consent.