A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation: government response

This government response confirms the United Kingdom’s principles-based, regulator-led framework for artificial intelligence, anchored in five cross-sectoral principles for safety, transparency, fairness, accountability, and redress. It embeds the 2023 White Paper and AI Safety Summit outcomes into a context-based regime, where existing regulators remain primary decision-makers but are supported by a new central function, an AI risk register, and targeted funding to build AI capabilities. DSIT stresses that the principles ‘are the foundation of our approach.’ The document also signals future movement towards binding duties on ‘developers of highly capable general-purpose AI systems’ and leaves open the possibility of a statutory duty on regulators. Overall, it translates a broadly pro-innovation narrative into an incremental governance architecture that can evolve towards more mandatory measures if AI risks intensify.