On 7 July 2026, the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce published its Legal Statement on Liability for AI Harms under the private law of England and Wales at The Law Society in London. The statement was drafted by Matthew Lavy KC, Richard Munden, Lucy McCormick, Iain Munro, Isabel Barter, and Jacob Turner. An expert group including Prof Ryan Abbott, Lawrence Akka KC, Prof Sarah Green, David Quest KC, and Prof Peter Wills contributed during preparation.
The statement analyses how English private law applies to AI-caused losses under negligence, product liability, and contract doctrines without requiring new legislation. It addresses the standard of care applicable where an AI system performs a professional or quasi-professional function, how deployers may be held responsible for AI outputs that fall outside user expectations, and how courts should trace causation where multiple AI models contribute to a harmful output. Controlling authorities include Donoghue v Stevenson for negligence, the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and Product Liability Directive 2001/95/EC for product claims, and the implied terms under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for contractual claims.
Legal services firms, financial institutions, AI system providers, and corporate deployers of AI systems under English law should review their technology contracts and indemnity structures against the statement's analysis. Insurers writing AI liability cover can use the statement to define the scope of insurable events. Medical device and financial services firms deploying AI in advisory or decision-support roles face direct exposure under the professional standard-of-care analysis the statement addresses.
The statement does not address criminal liability, regulatory liability under sector-specific rules, or AI systems acting with deliberate intent. It concludes that existing English law does not support attributing legal personality to AI systems. Open questions include the treatment of AI-generated advice as a professional service, the application of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to AI outputs sold to consumers, and the threshold at which a deployer's customisation of an AI system triggers product manufacturer liability.
Licentium advises clients on AI liability risk in regulated sectors. Contact us to discuss how the UKJT statement affects your contractual exposure and risk allocation. Work we undertake includes AI liability clause drafting, technology contract reviews, professional indemnity gap assessments, and AI governance analysis for regulated firms.