The proposed exception will only apply to copying for data mining conducted in the UK. A non-UK- technology company may seek to benefit from the exception by basing their business in the UK or the part which conducts data mining. An impact assessment will be published alongside the legislation when laid.

The Government has launched a period of stakeholder engagement on implementation options for its proposals for text and data mining and aims to conclude this engagement in early 2023. The Intellectual Property Office will invite views on implementation options from stakeholders representing both rights holders and users of data mining techniques.

Machine Learning is a significant technology within Artificial Intelligence (AI) more broadly.

One estimate published by PWC in 2017 proposed that AI could add £232bn to the UK economy by 2030 [1]. Analysis by Accenture predicts that AI alone could add an Additional £630bn to the economy by 2035 increasing the annual growth rate of GVA from 2.5 to 3.9% [2].

The Industrial Strategy sets Grand Challenges to put the UK in the vanguard of the industries of the future, ensuring that the UK takes advantage of major global changes, improving people’s lives and the country’s productivity. First among these is the AI and Data-driven Economy Grand Challenge.

[1]https://www.pwc.co.uk/press-room/press-releases/artificial-intelligence-could-add-232bn-to-UK-gdp.html

[2] https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/technology/artificial-intelligence-poised-to-double-annual-economic-growth-rate-in-12-developed-economies-and-boost-labor-productivity-by-up-to-40-percent-by-2035-according-to-new-research-by-accenture.htm

The Government recognises the need to increase the number of people with high-level skills in data science for the benefit of the UK, and is taking a range of measures to boost the supply of people with these skills.

The Alan Turing Institute is a £67 million joint venture between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and five leading UK Universities (Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, UCL and Warwick). It is the UK’s national institute for data science, and training the next generation of researchers is a key part of its mission.

Other institutes supported by the Research Councils include the Hartree Centre (a centre of excellence in High Performance Computing), the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, and the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, which are all helping researchers to develop their skills to make better use of data.

The Research Councils are taking other steps to increase the supply of researchers with data skills, for example all Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council-funded doctoral students are required to be trained in informatics, data analysis and computational methods as a core part of their training. They support numerous Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) involved in data analysis, including the University of Edinburgh’s Data Science CDT, and the Big Data and Cloud Computing CDT at the University of Newcastle. And the £19.5 million Q-Step programme is designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training in the UK.