Finally, on 11 June 2025, the Data (Use and Access) Bill passed and brought an end to the seemingly never-ending constitutional ping pong between the Commons and the Lords, the Lords and the Commons. The last hurdle is Royal Assent which, at the time of writing, according to the Parliament website will take place on - you guessed it - "date to be announced"!
The contentious AI and copyright proposals which were behind the back and forth were finally dropped, with the compromise being that the Secretary of State has committed to draft legislation with provisions on transparency for copyright owners regarding using copyrighted works for training AI models.
While many expected the Bill to pass weeks ago, the delay had started to raise eyebrows on the Continent as the EU Commission extended its adequacy process by six months to allow for the passage of the Bill (for more information see here). With the EU Commission needing to conduct its assessment and make its determination on adequacy for the UK by 27 December 2025, the Bill's passing will no doubt be welcomed by the EU.
While the majority of the soon to be Act will be brought into force by commencement orders (likely over the next Parliamentary term), it is worth casting your eyes over clause 139 of the Bill, as it sets out the provisions that will come into force immediately on (or shortly thereafter) Royal Assent, e.g. the statutory footing for the reasonable and proportionate searches in relation to DSARs (clause 139(2)(b)) comes in on Royal Assent, while 2 months after Royal Assent the provisions on notices from the Information Commissioner and the power to require documents come into force. It is worth noting that the other new/updated ICO powers, such as interview notices power to produce a report etc. will need to be commenced by commencement orders.
We know we speak for many when we say we watch with excitement as to when the new, dare we say it, "liberalising", provisions on Automated Decision Making (as per clause 80 > replacing Article 22 of the UK GDPR with Articles 22A, 22B, 22C and 22D) will come into force!
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