Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce statutory transparency obligations requiring AI developers to maintain and disclose records of copyright works used in training models; and if so, whether those obligations are being considered independently of any copyright exemption.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government will publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems by 18 March. This report will consider the policy options set out in the government’s consultation on copyright and AI, set out the evidence and views we have gathered and outline our next steps in areas such as transparency.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what economic impact assessment they have undertaken, or commissioned, regarding the effect of a copyright exemption for AI training on (1) the creative industries, (2) licensing markets for training data, and (3) investment in AI development in the UK.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government will publish an economic impact assessment by 18 March, as per Section 135 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

This will assess the impact of each of the policy options described in the consultation on copyright and AI, on copyright owners, and persons who develop or use AI systems.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of international approaches to copyright and AI training, including in the European Union and United States of America; and whether they have made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to UK copyright law on the UK's competitive position in AI and the creative industries.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government has engaged bilaterally with many jurisdictions, such as the EU and the US, to discuss approaches to copyright and AI policy, share best practice and consider technical issues.

The government continues to seek views on how best to meet the UK’s objectives on AI and copyright, from stakeholders and experts, including through the technical working groups and Parliamentary working groups.

The government will publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems by 18 March. This will set out the evidence and views we have gathered and outline our next steps.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering introducing a copyright exemption for commercial research, science and research or equivalent activities to permit the use of copyright works for artificial intelligence research and development without the consent of rightsholders; and if so, whether they will publish the scope of that exemption.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government will publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems by 18 March. This report will consider the policy options set out in the government’s consultation on copyright and AI, set out the evidence and views we have gathered and outline our next steps.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the reports required under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 will examine an expansion of the existing text and data mining exemption to cover commercial uses; and whether the introduction of such an expansion is their current policy.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The government will publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems by 18 March. The report will consider the policy options set out in the government’s consultation on copyright and AI, set out the evidence and views we gathered and outline our next steps.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 22 October (HL10982), when they intend to advertise the position of Creative Freelance Champion, as announced in the 2025 Creative Industries Sector Plan; what the remit and responsibilities of the role will be; and by when they expect the appointment to be made.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

We committed in the Creative Industries Sector Plan to appoint a Freelance Champion, who will advocate for the creative sector’s freelancers within government and be a member of the Creative Industries Council.

As this is a new role, we have spent time working closely with the sector to develop the role’s remit, identify the priorities within that and understand how the roleholder will engage with the sector once in post. We will make a direct ministerial appointment soon, and will publish a job description at that time.

The role remit will be intentionally broad, in order to allow the appointee scope to decide what issues to look into. Upon appointment, we expect the Freelance Champion to establish their priorities and develop a workplan to address them.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether current Census and labour market statistics adequately capture employment in freelance and portfolio-based sectors, including crafts and the visual arts; and what discussions they have had with the Office for National Statistics about this issue.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) capture everybody who is in work, with further detail about the type of work and contractual arrangements, which allow better understanding of different employment circumstances such as freelancing. The LFS and APS use the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007 and Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 frameworks for capturing the industry and occupation of responders. These aim to be comprehensive and for everyone who is in work to allocate the respondent an occupation, which will include those in crafts and visual arts, and an industry, such as "creative, arts and entertainment activities". In terms of the adequacy of the statistics themselves, the estimates available for those occupations on LFS/APS depends on having sufficient levels of response and any measures of accuracy calculated for estimates generated by users.

However, we recognise that the current definition of crafts using SIC2007 does not fully capture the crafts sector and does not adequately meet all of our stakeholder needs. As part of the ONS revision of the UK SIC framework, we have worked with stakeholders and the ONS to improve the way that DCMS sectors, including crafts and visual arts, are classified. As a result of this work, the updated proposed SIC2026 framework published by the ONS in February 2026 includes a new SIC code for “Physical three dimensional visual arts and craft creation activities” which will improve the identification of the crafts sector. The final framework will be published by the ONS on 31 March.

As part of the DCMS Sector Economic Estimates series, DCMS publishes official statistics on the number of self-employed jobs in DCMS sectors, including crafts and visual arts, which form part of the creative industries. These statistics are based on ONS data from the LFS and APS.

We have engaged with the ONS to understand the impact of reduced sample sizes of the LFS and APS on the quality of ONS labour market data and, in turn, the impact on the quality of our DCMS employment estimates.