Despite a contentious route to Royal Assent, the UK’s Data Act has been passed into law, marking an important step forward in the Government’s digitisation goals
The Data Act 2025 has been passed into UK law following a lengthy debate in the Houses of Parliament
On 19 June 2025, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 received Royal Assent, after a bumpy path to agreement between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords rejected the Government’s bill five times due to its plans for how copyright law should be interpreted in the context of AI training before accepting a limited agreement to continue work on the issue outside of the legislative process. The Act includes a wide range of new protections for consumer data, such as the digital identity “trust framework”, which will give digital identity providers a “trust mark” certification if they meet certain requirements on handling data privacy, security and inclusion. The Government has stated that the law will allow for data to be utilised in new ways that will drive efficiencies in the UK’s public services and give an estimated £10bn boost to the UK economy over the next 10 years. The Act also formalised the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) which maps out the UK’s underground pipes and cables networks, aiming to improve safety and efficiency in construction by making data on where all of these assets are more accessible. There is also a new provision that requires Ofcom, when notified by a coroner, to issue a data preservation notice to social media companies supporting their investigation into the death of a child. This provision gives bereaved parents the chance to access their child’s data and settles a years-long discussion that originated with the debate around the Online Safety Act and was the subject of a campaign commitment from the Labour Party in the 2024 General Election.
The introduction of smart data systems across sectors will drive economic growth and benefit consumer rights over their data
The new law gives government departments new powers to introduce smart data schemes through regulations such as:
Who is required to provide data;
What data they are required to provide;
How and when they must provide that data; and
How that data is secured and protected, including who authorises access to data.
The law also encourages the use of smart data schemes across sectors, furthering the GDPR’s provisions that enable individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data by allowing them to request their data be directly shared with authorised and regulated third parties. The law also establishes a supporting framework to ensure data security. Alongside the use of smart data, new information standards have been introduced, better enabling effective data sharing across all public services, promising significant time and cost savings in the years to come.
The law’s introduction of stronger consumer protections in the digital ID market could open the door to a government-run BritCard style programme
The Act’s digital identity trust framework not only supports consumers in making safer and more informed choices between digital ID providers with its “trust mark” certification but also could open the door to a much wider adoption of digital IDs in the UK. In June 2025, Labour Together, a think tank seen as close to the Government, published a paper in support of government-run digital IDs, or, BritCards. The changes made in the Data Act could encourage a wider take-up of digital IDs with the promise of increased safety for users, strengthening the viability of the introduction of a government-run system in the future. While the Government has not yet announced plans to create a unique and public digital ID akin to a BritCard, it is currently in the process of rolling out its GOV.UK Wallet tool, which will allow users to store and access digital versions of existing government documents to prove their identity without physical copies.
The Government got its way on AI and copyright, but more work is still to come
Over the past six months, the UK Government has been working to reform copyright protections in the context of AI training. While the Data Act has now been passed, there is still no decision from the consultation on this matter which closed in February 2025, although the Government has now explicitly stated that the outcome of which will determine its approach. Baroness Beeban Kidron (Peer, House of Lords) led an amendment to include new requirements on tech firms, proposing that they be required to disclose transparent information on all data being used to train AI models and obtain permission from copyright holders to use their works. Although her amendment failed, the Government did agree to publish a report on its proposals for the matter within nine months of the bill receiving Royal Assent, including an interim report within six months. The issue of requiring AI firms to respect copyright protections in obtaining training data, which has drawn advocacy from Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa, among other notable figures in the creative industries, is therefore likely to remain a contentious matter of debate in the coming months.
