Ministers mull regulation reform bill

Good morning, I'm typing/people watching in the sunshine of a Covent Garden pub. It was idyllic until a French school trip arrived.

Happening Today 🗓️

In Isambard's footsteps: AI minister Kanishka Narayan opens the Isambard Summit in Bristol this morning, a two-day event exploring research made possible by the UK's most powerful supercomputer. He'll position Isambard-AI in the legacy of the industrial revolution, describing it as "national economic infrastructure, built to turn capacity into impact".

What ya been doing? Google, TikTok, X and Meta execs will be quizzed by MPs at 9:30am about how they've responded to misinfo and harmful algorithms since the 2024 Southport Riots. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee will be asking about their progress since they last appeared before the committee in spring 2025. Giving evidence are Wifredo Fernández, from X , Alistair Law, from TikTok , Meta's Rebecca Stimson and Google's Zoe Darme.

News In Brief 🩳

Nice: AI data firm Encord has opened a new London HQ, hailing the city as "one of the best places in the world to build an AI company".

Over-reliant? Moi. Prime minister Keir Starmer said the UK was not too dependent on US tech in an exchange with Science, Innovation and Technology chair Chi Onwurah yesterday. He pushed back against Onwurah saying the country was "dangerously over-reliant" on companies like Palantir in defence, and now finance, as well as AWS and Microsoft in cloud. Speaking to the Liaison Committee, he did, however, say the UK needed more "domestic capability", especially in drone production.

Or else: Tech secretary Liz Kendall has written to tech platforms telling them to "make your platforms safer for women and girls" by putting in place Ofcom guidance by the year end.

AI abuse: AI-generated images of child abuse have reached record levels, the Internet Watch Foundation finds in a report out this morning. The UK-based watchdog identified over 8,000 images and videos last year.

The case for open: A report from Public First and Meta wants the government to create a £100m Open Source AI Sovereignty Fund for SME adoption. Their research claims three-quarters of British businesses would adopt open-source AI tools, but only a third have so far.

We're doing great: The government reckons it has either delivered or is on track to deliver all the commitments in its Digital Inclusion Plan, in an update published this morning.

Annual plans: The Competition and Markets Authority yesterday published its full annual plan for 2026/27 pledging a "UK regulatory landscape that attracts investment and instils business confidence".

Ministers mull regulation reform bill

The business department is looking at how to get regulatory reforms through Parliament, including new legislation needed for AI Growth Labs, ahead of May's King's Speech.

Opportunity in disaster: The King's Speech, where the government marks the start of a new parliamentary session by outlining its legislative agenda, is due the week after elections that polls show will be terrible for Labour. The May 7 results could spark a leadership challenge, but the King's Speech is also being viewed as another reset moment by No.10.

We're gonna need a better name: One option which has been looked at by the Department for Business and Trade is a regulatory reform bill, according to five industry figures, although all said details were sparse.

We'll do something: It would include giving ministers the power to lift regulations to create AI Growth Labs — testbeds for AI experimentation where usual rules won't apply. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last week that the business department was working on legislation to make that happen, but didn't confirm the timing or the method.

Package it up: Ministers don't want to introduce AI Growth Labs through a standalone AI Bill and there are other areas of regulatory reform the government needs primary legislation for. They include an overhaul of nuclear rules to carry out the recommendations of the Fingleton Review.

What else could be in it? The business secretary Peter Kyle has also said he will strengthen the "Growth Duty" on regulators which would need legislation. At the moment regulators must have "regard" to growth when making decisions, rather than explicitly promote it.

Yes, it is a priority: Kyle's department has a target to reduce regulatory admin on businesses by a quarter by the end of this Parliament. It published a Regulatory Action Plan last March and in an October update said: "Where reforms... require primary legislation, we will prioritise these reforms and ensure that these are at the forefront of planning for future primary legislation through the rest of this Parliament."

We'd rather not: Whatever it decides, a regulation bill will be hard to keep narrow, which is why the government is trying to move without primary legislation wherever it can. But that will only get it so far.

That's your lot,

Tom