Data (Use and Access) Act 2025

136 Report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems U.K.

(1) The Secretary of State must, before the end of the period of 9 months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed—

(a) prepare and publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems, and

(b) lay the report before Parliament.

(2) The report must consider—

(a) the four policy options described in section B.4 of the Copyright and AI Consultation Paper, read with relevant parts of section C of that Paper (policy options about copyright law and the training of artificial intelligence models using copyright works), and

(b) such alternative options as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.

(3) The report must consider, and make proposals in relation to, each of the following—

(a) technical measures and standards (for example, measures and standards concerned with metadata) that may be used to control—

(i) the use of copyright works to develop AI systems, and

(ii) the accessing of copyright works for that purpose (for example, by web crawlers);

(b) the effect of copyright on access to, and use of, data by developers of AI systems (for example, on text and data mining), including the effect on developers who are individuals, micro businesses, small businesses or medium-sized businesses;

(c) the disclosure of information by developers of AI systems about—

(i) their use of copyright works to develop AI systems, and

(ii) how they access copyright works for that purpose (for example, by means of web crawlers);

(d) the granting of licences to developers of AI systems to do acts restricted by copyright, including the granting of licences by and to individuals, micro businesses, small businesses and medium-sized businesses;

(e) ways of enforcing requirements and restrictions relating to—

(i) the use of copyright works to develop AI systems, and

(ii) the accessing of copyright works for that purpose (for example, by web crawlers),

including enforcement by a regulator.

(4) The consideration and proposals under each of paragraphs (a) to (e) of subsection (3) must include consideration of, and proposals relating to, AI systems developed outside the United Kingdom.

(5) In preparing the report, the Secretary of State must consider the likely effect of proposals, in the United Kingdom, on—

(a) copyright owners, and

(b) persons who develop or use AI systems,

including the likely effect on copyright owners, developers and users who are individuals, micro businesses, small businesses or medium-sized businesses.

(6) In preparing the report, the Secretary of State must have regard to, among other things, the Consultation Paper responses.

(7) The Secretary of State may comply with this section by preparing and publishing two or more reports which, taken together, satisfy the requirements in this section.

(8) In this section—

• “Consultation Paper responses” means responses to the Copyright and AI Consultation Paper received by the Secretary of State on or before 25 February 2025;

• “copyright” means the property right which subsists in accordance with Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988;

• “copyright work” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988;

• “web crawler” means a computer program that obtains data from websites in accordance with instructions and that can autonomously determine which websites to visit.

(9) Terms used in this section and in section 135 have the same meaning in this section as they have in that section.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 136 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 142(1)

I2 S. 136 in force at 20.8.2025 by S.I. 2025/904, reg. 2(w)