No. There is no specific AI regulation. However, existing English law applies to AI.
In an AI White Paper (March 2023), the previous Conservative government proposed a non-binding, sector-based, principles-based approach to regulating AI. This was said to be a"pro-innovation approach". Existing regulators in different sectors would regulate AI within their remits.
The incumbent Labour government announced in July 2024 that they would introduce narrow legislation to place requirements on developers of the most powerful AI models. As of March 2025, no bill has yet been presented to Parliament.
Concepts in the previous government's AI White Paper, such as existing regulators regulating AI, remain in place but this has not been confirmed.
The UK has signed the Council of Europe AI Convention and will need to adopt the measures in order to give effect to the Convention's requirements.
The government has recently run an "AI and Copyright Consultation" - closed 25 February 2025.
The government has indicated that its preferred ‘proposed approach’ is to introduce a new broad commercial text and data mining (TDM) exception into UK law, for data mining for any purpose, but only where the copyright owner has not reserved their rights in relation to the work.
The AI Opportunities Action Plan was an independent report published by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which sets out 3 primary goals to support AI innovators and 50 practical recommendations that the government should enact in order to achieve the 3 goals.
The UK government endorsed the report and their response was published here.
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 does make provision for copyright protection for "Computer Generated Works", but it is not clear the extent to which these can be protected as a work needs to be "original" in order to attract protection, and the UK follows the EU test that the work must be the "author's own intellectual creation".
There is no general TDM exception in the UK - the TDM exception is limited to copies made for the sole purpose of ""non-commercial research"", and the party must have ""lawful access"" to the work (which is not defined in the statute).
Some additional detail as to the government's intended scope of this defence can be found in the following explanatory memorandum.
The UK Supreme Court has found that an AI model cannot be an inventor of a Patent under the Patents Act 1997 (Thaler v Comptroller of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks).
The IPO was, in 2023 trying to develop an "AI copyright code of practice" by collecting input from rightsholders and developers, but this was abandoned in Feb 2024.
The Data (Use and Access) Bill will amend UK data protection law and may have some consequences for AI, although as of March 2025 it is still being debated.
N/A
ICO enforcement against Snap: The ICO issued a preliminary enforcement notice against Snap in relation to the data protection impact assessment (DPIA) for its AI chatbot. That enforcement was resolved when the ICO concluded the DPIA was in compliance.
ICO enforcement against Clearview AI: The ICO fined US-based Clearview AI over £7million in 2022 in relation to processing of personal data in relation to its AI facial recognition tool. Clearview AI successfully appealed the fine in the UK information tribunal (on jurisdictional grounds). As at the latest update in October 2024, the ICO is pursuing an appeal.
Yes. Many regulators have issued AI policies, guidance documents and strategies for their sectors.
These include the FCA, OFGEM, OFCOM, MHRA, ICO, CMA, and CAA.
*Information is accurate up to 30 April 2025
