Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what his planned timeline is for publishing proposals in relation to his Department's recent consultation entitled Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, which closed on 25 February 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is currently reviewing over 11,500 responses to the consultation on copyright and AI and will publish its proposals in due course.
In addition, as set out in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the Government has committed to providing a progress report to Parliament by 18 December, and publishing an economic impact assessment, and report on the use of copyright works in the development of AI systems, by 18 March 2026.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish a summary of responses to the consultation on copyright and AI.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is currently reviewing over 11,500 responses to the consultation on copyright and AI and will publish its response in due course. This will include a summary of consultation responses.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that copyright exceptions are not expanded by default through AI practices without adequate parliamentary scrutiny.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has stated that copying protected material in the UK will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an existing exception to copyright applies.
The Government recently consulted on several topics relating to the interaction between copyright and artificial intelligence (AI), including seeking views on potential legislative changes to copyright law in this area. This consultation closed on 25th February.
The Government’s priority now is to review all responses to the consultation, to help inform its next steps. The Government will continue to engage extensively on this issue and its proposals will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report entitled Detecting Deep Fakes: Artificial Intelligence and Anti-Jewish hate: A Case for regulating Generative AI published by INACH, Decoding Antisemitism, the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Antisemitism Policy Trust.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Antisemitic content can have a chilling effect on Jewish users online. The government is working to ensure that all users feel confident engaging online without fear of harassment or abuse. The Online Safety Act regulates AI-generated content in the same way as ‘real’ content - where it is shared on an in-scope service and is either illegal content or harmful to children. The Act also gives online platforms duties where there are risks of their services being used to carry out certain priority offences – this includes illegal antisemitic content which stirs up hatred.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on exempting Category 1 services from their associated obligations under the Online Safety Act.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator, to determine which services fall into Category 1. Ofcom’s current roadmap estimates publishing the register of categorised services this summer, with the additional duties for Category 1 services becoming enforceable once the relevant codes of practice are in force.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many times he has met with organisations working to tackle antisemitism since taking office.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings about tackling racism, prejudice and discrimination online. For example, we have engaged a range of stakeholders and held roundtables to understand the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act in tackling antisemitism. Ministerial meetings and engagements are published through quarterly transparency reports on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department has made an assessment of the differential economic impact of the proposed copyright exceptions for AI training in each creative sector.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a summary assessment of options alongside the consultation on copyright and AI.
The Government recognises that this is a complex area and welcomes further evidence on the economic impacts of its proposals on creative sectors as part of the consultation.
The Government’s priority now is to review the evidence from the consultation which will inform its response.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with authors whose work has been used without (a) permission or (b) remuneration to train generative AI models.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has engaged extensively with the creative sector, including through a roundtable meeting held by the Secretary of State in March.
The consultation on copyright and AI, which closed on 25 February, specifically sought views on giving rights holders greater control over uses of their material in AI training and supporting their ability to be remunerated when used.
The Government will continue to engage with the sector, as it carefully analyses the responses received to the consultation.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many responses there were to the consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence which closed on 25 February 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government received 11,587 responses to the consultation on copyright and AI. This total includes online survey responses and email submissions.
A small number of the email submissions received were associated with online survey responses (providing supporting evidence, for example), so the total number of distinct responses will be slightly lower than 11,587.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department has made an estimate of the proportion of large artificial intelligence language models that are trained on datasets containing copyrighted material without licensing agreements.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Copying protected material in the UK will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.
The Government recently consulted on several topics relating to the interaction between copyright and artificial intelligence (AI), including seeking evidence on the use of copyright material in AI model development and transparency on this.
This consultation closed on 25th February.
The Government’s priority now is to review all responses to the consultation, to help inform its next steps. The Government will continue to engage extensively on this issue and its proposals will be set out in due course.