Government opens call for evidence on data rules for AI

TL;DR:

• The government has launched a call for evidence on how data regulation interacts with AI and other data-intensive technologies.
• It wants practical examples of where personal and non-personal data rules support or inhibit AI use, and where legal or governance arrangements could enable data re-use while managing harms.
• The call closes on 9 September 2026 and is open to businesses, researchers, civil society and individuals.

UK businesses have been handed a direct channel to shape the data rules they will operate under. The government’s new call for evidence asks for practical examples — not position papers — of how data regulation currently supports or gets in the way of AI and other data-intensive technologies.

The framing is deliberately open-ended. Ministers want to know what is working, where uncertainty persists, and where organisations hit friction now or expect to in future. The answers will feed a decision about which of three paths to take: further guidance, targeted changes, or more fundamental reform of the UK’s data regulation framework.

Contributions are invited from businesses, innovators, researchers, civil society organisations, academics and individuals with hands-on experience of developing, deploying or enabling AI. The window closes on 9 September 2026.

Why responses matter this time

Calls for evidence can be box-ticking, but this one lands at a consequential moment. The UK has positioned its lighter-touch, principles-based approach as a competitive advantage over the EU’s AI Act — a claim that only holds if the underlying data rules actually let firms build. Companies that have hit GDPR-derived friction when training models, sharing datasets or re-using data have a rare opening to document it while the framework is genuinely in play. Silence, in practice, is a vote for the status quo.

For smaller firms without policy teams, the ask is manageable: concrete examples of a data rule that blocked, delayed or complicated an AI project — or one whose clarity enabled it — are exactly what the exercise seeks.

Looking forward

Evidence gathered will determine whether the government opts for guidance, surgical amendment or structural reform. With the response window running through the summer, trade bodies are likely to coordinate sector submissions — worth joining for any business whose AI plans depend on how UK data law evolves.