The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) published the final Legal Statement on Liability for AI Harms on 7 July 2026, following a consultation period that opened in January 2026. The Statement provides the UKJT's authoritative analysis of how existing English private law allocates liability for non-deliberate harm caused by AI systems and identifies areas where legislative reform is needed. The UKJT previously published statements on the legal status of cryptoassets in 2019 and the enforceability of smart contracts in 2021.
The Statement identifies contract as the primary mechanism for allocating liability within AI supply chains. Where parties have a direct contractual relationship, the agreed terms govern disputes subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Where no contract exists, liability falls under negligence, with the standard of care determined by reference to what a reasonably competent professional in the relevant field would do. The UKJT concludes that foundation model developers are unlikely to bear liability for unforeseeable downstream harms caused by deployers or end users who apply model outputs in ways the developer could not reasonably anticipate.
AI deployers bear primary responsibility under the Statement's analysis. Legal professionals, financial advisers, healthcare providers, and software integrators who present AI outputs to clients or embed them in products are assessed against the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner in their field. The UKJT finds professionals are potentially liable both for over-reliance on AI outputs and for failure to deploy AI where its use would meet the current standard of practice. Deployers should review contractual allocation of liability across their AI supply chains and assess indemnity and warranty provisions with AI vendors.
The UKJT identifies three areas where existing English law is inadequate: liability for harm caused by fully autonomous AI systems acting without meaningful human supervision, the application of product liability rules to AI software, and causation analysis where the AI decision is opaque. The Statement calls on the UK government to address these gaps through legislation rather than leaving resolution to incremental judicial development.
Licentium advises technology companies, financial institutions, and professional services firms on AI liability, governance, and regulatory compliance. Work we undertake includes AI supplier contract review and negotiation, liability allocation structuring for AI-enabled products and services, compliance assessment under the EU AI Act, UK AI governance advisory, and professional negligence risk analysis in AI-assisted legal and financial work.
Source: UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, Legal Statement on Liability for AI Harms, 7 July 2026