UK Government rejects calls to bring AI companies under CSR Bill scope

The UK government has rejected amendments proposed by members of the House of Lords to include artificial intelligence (AI) vendors within the scope of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (CSR).

Cybersecurity minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra told the Grand Committee that regulating frontier AI developers under the legislation would not stop hostile actors from misusing their technologies. The minister argued the CSR is intentionally technology-agnostic, targeting critical organisations rather than individual software providers. She also highlighted existing alternative measures designed to tackle such threats, including pre-release testing by the AI Security Institute (AISI) and the voluntary AI cybersecurity Code of Practice. The minister also rejected proposals that would require AI developers to prove their models do not cross certain red lines, or grant powers to enforce datacentre shutdowns. Lloyd argued that it is more reasonable to direct regulated operators to stop using specific tools instead.

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