The Government has been accused of abandoning the creative sector after ministers used a parliamentary procedure dating from 1678 to block a third attempt to force tech companies to disclose which copyrighted material has been used to train their AI models.
First tabled by Baroness Beeban Kidron and passed by the Lords late last year, the changes were then removed by the Government during the committee stage of the legislation in the Commons in March. Last week, Liberal Democrat MP Victoria Collins reintroduced the amendment to the Commons, but it was voted down before the Bill was passed back to the Lords.
However, it was then reintroduced for the third time late last week, only for ministers to strip it out by invoking “financial privilege”, insisting there is no budget available for new regulations, during a Commons debate yesterday.
The Commons established its financial privilege, or the right to control financial matters, through resolutions in the late 17th century, with the most significant one being in 1678. This right asserts the Commons’ sole authority over all legislation with financial implications.
The minister of state for media, tourism and creative industries Chris Bryant has long insisted that Government wants to wait until the results of its separate copyright and AI consultation – which closed in February – before changes to the law are considered.
He told MPs that although he recognised that for many in the creative industries this “feels like an apocalyptic moment”, he did not think the amendment delivered the required solutions.
The sooner the data bill was passed, the quicker he would be able to make progress on updating copyright law, Bryant insisted.
In response to the move, Lady Kidron said: “The Government failed to answer its own backbenchers who repeatedly asked ‘if not now, then when?’ and the minister replied with roundtable reviews and spurious problems about technical solutions. It is for government to set the laws and incentivise companies to obey it not run roundtables trying to work out technical solutions that they are not fit to provide.
“It is astonishing that a Labour Government would abandon the labour force of an entire sector. My inbox is filled with individual artists and global companies who are bewildered that the Government would allow theft at scale and cosy up to those who are thieving. There is another way, but this Government have chosen to ignore it.
“Across the creative and business community, across Parliament, people are gobsmacked that the Government is playing parliamentary chess with their livelihoods.”
Even so, the fight is not over yet as Kidron says she will table a rephrased amendment before the bill’s return to the Lords next week. This could include removing the reference to regulation, or omitting a timeframe for it to be implemented.
A Department for Science, Innovation & Technology spokesperson said: “We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we have been separately consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors. We have always been clear that we will not rush into any decisions or bring forward any legislation until we are confident that we have a practical plan which delivers on each of our objectives.”
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