The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce published its final Legal Statement on Liability for AI Harms under the Private Law of England and Wales on 7 July 2026, following a public consultation opened in January 2026. The statement covers civil liability for non-deliberate harms caused by AI systems. Economic torts, competition claims, intellectual property rights, data protection, public authority AI use, and AI contract formation are expressly outside its scope.
The UKJT examined liability exposure under negligence, vicarious liability, professional liability, the Consumer Protection Act 1987, and the law of false statements. Where an organisation presents an AI system as communicating on its behalf, or adopts AI-generated outputs as its own, liability in tort or for professional breach may remain with the deploying organisation rather than pass to the developer. The Consumer Protection Act 1987 applies to AI embedded in physical products where a defect causes personal injury or property damage to a consumer.
Developers, deployers, and end-user businesses operating under English law face differentiated liability depending on their position in the supply chain. A deployer that negligently configures, fails to supervise, or inadequately tests an AI system may be liable in negligence even where the underlying model performed as specified. Professional service firms using AI to generate client advice carry the same duty of care that applies to human-generated advice and cannot delegate that duty to the AI system.
The statement identifies two categories where English law may not provide adequate remedies: wholly autonomous AI decision-making causing pure economic loss without a proximate human actor, and liability chains involving multiple interacting AI systems without human oversight at each stage. The UKJT flagged these as potential candidates for legislative intervention, though no specific bill is attached to or immediately anticipated from the statement.
We advise on AI governance, liability allocation in AI supply contracts, and risk exposure for AI-assisted professional service delivery across UK and EU jurisdictions, and have a partner network available for specialist litigation matters. Contact us to discuss your exposure. Work we undertake includes AI liability audits, developer and deployer contract drafting, professional indemnity coverage review for AI-assisted services, and AI governance policy implementation.