The process of ‘ping pong’ between the Commons and the Lords on the Data Bill came to an end on 11 June 2025 when the Lords accepted amendments tabled by the Commons the previous day and dropped their own amendment on transparency. The Bill received Royal Assent on 19 June.
The new Commons amendments offered some concessions to the Lords – bringing forward the timescale for an impact assessment from 12 to nine months and adding further requirements to that impact assessment – on approaches to AI models trained overseas and how transparency and other requirements should be enforced. The Government will also now be required to issue a progress statement within six months of Royal Assent of the Bill.
Speaking in the debate, Baroness Kidron said: “I have explicitly left the protection of the property and livelihood of millions of British workers, the UK AI industry and the UK’s creative and IP-rich companies in the Government’s hands. Despite actively acknowledging that creative work is being stolen at scale, the Government chose once again to remove transparency provisions your Lordships provided, allowing the tech sector to continue to rob the creative industries blind. It is as cynical as it is bewildering.”
While we were disappointed that Baroness Kidron’s amendment on transparency was not accepted by the Commons, the protracted process of ping pong on the Data Bill was described as unprecedented in debates and was testimony to the strength of feeling in the Lords and among MPs that creators’ rights must be protected when it comes to AI. The debates received widespread coverage in the media too.
Our members played a huge part in keeping up the pressure and the noise – writing to their MPs and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy MP and taking part in rallies too (as pictured above). The Government can be in no doubt that creators, trade unions, allies in Parliament and the broader creative industries will not stand by and see creators’ copyright undermined in the interests of Big Tech.
The Government also received an unprecedented response (over 11,000 submissions) to its consultation on Copyright and AI earlier this year (including from WGGB and many of our members) and we await the Government’s response to that.
Our work in this area continues as part of the Creators’ Rights Alliance and the Creative Rights in AI Coalition and we will keep members updated on how they can get involved.
The Government has promised to engage with stakeholders in the industry as part of its Data Bill working party, so we will continue our lobbying work in that area, too.
Find out more about our campaigning and lobbying work on AI.