UK AI Regulation — Plain-English Snapshot

What the UK is doing

• No single "AI Act" yet. The UK uses a principles-based approach and asks existing regulators (ICO, FCA, Ofcom, CMA, MHRA, etc.) to apply five cross-sector principles: safety, transparency, fairness, accountability, contestability.
• Data protection still rules. UK GDPR and the ICO's AI & data protection guidance remain the core guardrails (DPIAs, lawful basis, minimisation, fairness, human oversight).
• Audit market getting formalised. BSI's BS ISO/IEC 42006:2025 sets requirements for organisations that audit AI management systems—aimed at ending "wild-west" assurance.

What this means for you

• You must govern AI now under existing laws (privacy, equality, sector rules).
• Expect more credible AI audits and requests for exportable logs (who used what, when, with what data).
• Start with policies + attestations, a vendor register, DPIAs, and retention rules.

Practical checklist (UK)

• Publish: AI Acceptable Use, Prompt/Output Logging, Data Handling, Risk & Incident policies.
• Run DPIAs for high-risk use cases (biometrics, profiling, HR decisions).
• Maintain an AI Vendor Register (purpose, data classes, lawful basis, retention).
• Train teams on fairness, transparency, human-in-the-loop.
• Keep audit-ready logs (metadata by default; content logging opt-in with encryption/retention).

🍋 Lemons → Lemonade: Compliance is the lemon. Actionable insights are the lemonade. Use the same logs for adoption analytics, spend oversight, and optimisation.