Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of destructive scanning of books by or for tech companies; and whether they intend to take action to halt this practice.

The government is aware of reports of AI companies destructively scanning physical books as part of model training. As set out in our March report on copyright and AI, we are taking steps to help rightsholders control and license their work, including reviewing technical solutions, standards and best practice on input transparency.

This work will help inform whether Government intervention is needed, and if so, what a proportionate approach might look like.