House of Commons – May 7, 2025 – b.784.5.14

The Deputy Speaker put forthwith the Question already proposed from the Chair (Standing Order No. 83E), That the clause be read a Second time.

Clause text:

New Clause 16 - Economic impact assessment “(1) The Secretary of State must, before the end of the period of 12 months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed— (a) prepare and publish an assessment of the economic impact in the United Kingdom of each of 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) lay a document containing the assessment before Parliament. (2) The document may include an assessment of the economic impact in the United Kingdom of policy options which are alternatives to the options described in subsection (1)(a). (3) An assessment included in the document must, among other things, include assessment of the economic impact of each option on— (a) copyright owners, and (b) persons who develop or use AI systems, including the impact on copyright owners, developers and users who are individuals, micro businesses, small businesses or medium-sized businesses. (4) In this section— ‘AI system’ means a machine-based system that, from the input it receives, can infer how to— (a) generate predictions, digital content, recommendations, decisions or other similar outputs, or (b) influence a physical or virtual environment, with a view to achieving an explicit or implicit objective;

‘the Copyright and AI Consultation Paper’ means the command paper ‘Copyright and AI: Consultation’, numbered CP1205, published on 17 December 2024;

‘copyright owner’ has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988;

‘develop’ an AI system means carry on an activity involved in producing the system, such as (for example) designing, programming, training or testing the system (and related terms are to be interpreted accordingly);

‘digital content’ means data which is produced and supplied in digital form;

‘medium-sized business’ means a business with at least 50 but fewer than 250 staff;

‘micro business’ means a business with fewer than 10 staff;

‘small business’ means a business with at least 10 but fewer than 50 staff;

‘use’ an AI system means instruct an AI system to generate outputs or to influence an environment (and related terms are to be interpreted accordingly).”—(Chris Bryant.)