UK’s AI regulation

In the UK, the government has adopted an agile, pro-innovation, sector-based approach to AI regulation. Avoiding disruption to responsible AI innovation is the government’s rationale for not rushing to legislate. A non-statutory approach could offer better adaptability.

In March 2023, the government published the AI White Paper. This set out a cross-sectoral, principles-based and regulator-led approach, with light-touch government involvement. This means the government has looked to empower existing UK regulators (including the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Office of Communications (Ofcom)) to develop flexible and proportionate guidance to address the use of AI in their sectors, with a focus on the principles of:

• safety, security, robustness;
• transparency and explainability;
• fairness;
• accountability and governance; and
• contestability and redress.

To this end, the regulators were asked to report on how they are developing the proposals of the White Paper and their strategic approach to AI, the responses to which can now be found here. These updates could inform the government’s adaptive approach to AI, and may lead to a statutory duty being placed on regulators to have regard to the above principles.

Work has been underway to create a central government AI function to coordinate policy across sectors and promote information sharing between regulators. Investment (in the millions) has also been made to upskill regulators and support innovation in the AI market (though Labour has since scaled back certain funding that had been promised for AI projects).

The government recognises the importance of gap analysis to identify areas which require coverage or possible future regulation. This may be needed in relation to “highly capable general-purpose AI systems” to manage safety risks if this is deployed across multiple sectors (these are foundation models trained on huge datasets which can perform a wide variety of tasks, some to “superhuman” levels).

The UK has also sought to position itself as an international leader in providing a safe and trustworthy framework for AI development, having:

• supported Professor Yoshua Bengio on the International AI Safety Report in January 2025 alongside 32 other countries and intergovernmental organisations. The report outlines global risks and mitigation strategies for general purpose AI;
• introduced the AI Playbook for the Government in February 2025. The playbook offers guidance on using AI safely, effectively and securely for civil servants and people working in government organisations; and
• launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan in January 2025. This aims to integrate AI across public services and the economy and includes creation of AI Growth zones to fast-track infrastructure development.

It’s possible that the UK might still legislate for AI, particularly given the change in government. After the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill (Private Member’s Bill brought in House of Lords) failed to progress into law before the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the UK’s general election in 2024, the UK reintroduced it on 4 March 2025. The Bill is currently awaiting second reading in the House of Lords. In July 2024, the King’s speech also announced the Government’s plan to introduce AI-specific legislation. This built on Labour’s manifesto pledge to ensure the safe development and use of AI models, including the introduction of binding regulation on certain companies that develop the most powerful of these models.