May 13, 2026, 12:10 GMT | Insight
UK businesses can expect regulators to be given stronger duties to support economic growth and new powers to temporarily relax rules for testing AI under legislation announced Wednesday. The proposed Regulating for Growth Bill would create cross-economy regulatory “sandboxing powers” and strengthen regulators’ duty to promote economic growth. The speech on upcoming legislative priorities also confirmed plans for digital ID legislation and advancement of a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
UK businesses can expect regulators to be given stronger duties to support economic growth and new powers to temporarily relax rules for testing artificial intelligence and other technologies under a bill announced on Wednesday in the government’s new legislative agenda.
Delivering a speech prepared by the Labour government, King Charles told lawmakers that new legislation would be introduced “to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation through innovation” (see
here).
A briefing note published by the Prime Minister’s Office shortly after the speech detailed the proposals, which will be part of the Regulating for Growth Bill.
The bill will seek to “strengthen the Growth Duty” on regulators and create cross-economy “sandboxing powers” allowing businesses to test products and technologies under temporary exemptions from existing rules, the government said.
Arguing that the current regulatory system is “frequently complex, risk averse, slow to adapt and poorly suited to modern technologies and business models,” the government said the reform would seek to “keep pace with a world of accelerating change.”
But it added that “this legislation is not about deregulation.”
“The bill will strengthen regulatory agility without undermining consumer protections, workers’ rights or regulators’ operational independence,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in the briefing note.
The bill would build on a previously announced action plan (see
here) and is intended to ensure regulation “supports growth and innovation while maintaining essential safeguards,” the government said.
The proposed sandbox powers would allow “existing laws to be modified or suspended” to support controlled testing of technologies including AI, medicines, autonomous maritime systems and defense technology, according to the briefing note.
The government said the powers could support “cross-cutting AI sandboxes” aimed at enabling the “responsible testing and adoption of AI-enabled products and services across multiple sectors where existing regulatory frameworks currently slow innovation.”
The briefing note also said the reforms could be used to support testing of AI-enabled medical technologies and autonomous shipping systems under “strict safeguards,” including consumer and human rights protections.
The measures were announced alongside a broader package of growth-focused legislation affecting several sectors, including financial services (see
here).
— Cyber, digital ID —
The speech also confirmed that the government will proceed with plans to place digital ID frameworks on a statutory footing and continue advancing cybersecurity legislation already going through parliament. Ministers will “proceed with the introduction of digital ID that will modernize how citizens interact with public services."
Under the proposed Digital Access to Services Bill, a legal framework for a government-issued digital identity credential would be established. Once implemented, this digital ID could be used across public services.
The briefing note said the digital ID system would be “free to access” and intended to reduce bureaucracy linked to identity verification and public services.
Also confirmed in the speech is that ministers would “introduce legislation to improve the country’s defenses against cybersecurity threats.”
The proposed Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was introduced to parliament last year and is already going through lawmakers’ scrutiny (see case file
here), would expand the scope of UK cyber rules covering essential services and digital infrastructure.
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