‘Britain must control the value created from our own data – or someone else will’

Britain under the Tories made a historic mistake with North Sea oil. We lost control of the wealth it generated. The country cannot afford to repeat that mistake with our data in the new AI-driven economic revolution.

The Labour Party knows that artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our economy and the nature of work. We are quite rightly focusing on leading these changes, making sure the UK plays its part, and holding companies that create challenges to account. We must continue to address these challenges and opportunities so that we are setting the UK up to lead this new AI era.

But first we must answer this simple question, who owns the wealth generated by AI from our data and how best do we use it not just today, but for future generations? The answer matters because AI is not creating value from nothing. It learns from data generated by all of us: through government departments, our tax system, our public services, our transport networks and our daily lives as we tap away at our screens. If every citizen contributes to this national resource, whether they realise it or not, then the British public should retain control over how it is used, who profits from it, and how the returns are shared.

READ MORE: ‘Andy Burnham needs a ‘sovereign and safe AI’ policy’

Yet unless we have a plan and build the infrastructure now to capture that wealth and invest it wisely, we risk losing control twice over: control of the data itself and of the wealth each of us helps create. The economic returns will flow into the hands of a concentrated few technology companies and their shareholders instead of the British public.

After discovering substantial oil resources beneath the North Sea, Norway secured it as a national asset. Successive governments established a sovereign wealth fund, investing revenues for future generations. Today it is worth more than £1.5 trillion and supports everything from pensions to public services.

Britain chose another path with its resources. North Sea revenues were absorbed into day-to-day spending. They helped fund tax cuts and current expenditure, but if Britain had followed Norway’s model, our own sovereign wealth fund could today be worth hundreds of billions of pounds.

Data is becoming the defining economic resource of the twenty-first century. Unlike fossil fuels, it does not diminish when used, it is a renewable resource. Its value only grows as datasets become richer, more connected and more useful. That’s why we must act now to secure the full benefits of this national asset for future generations.

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Britain possesses something few countries can match. Our National Health Service provides cradle-to-grave healthcare records for almost the entire population. Alongside this sits decades of information held by HMRC, the Department for Work and Pensions, Companies House, the Land Registry, Ordnance Survey and many other public institutions. Taken together, these datasets represent one of Britain’s greatest strategic advantages, and they should remain under British control and deliver lasting benefits for the British people.

We must ensure that whenever public data creates commercial value, the public receives a permanent return. This means often licensing, not selling data. It means retaining control through royalty payments, revenue sharing and, where appropriate, equity stakes flowing into a sovereign data wealth fund owned and managed on behalf of the British people.

This Labour government has already taken important first steps to ensure that the benefits of this resource remain securely in our hands. The AI Opportunities Action Plan recognised government data as a strategic public asset and the National Data Library will improve access and coordination. But access alone is not enough.

There’s a missing institution. A National Data Wealth Fund would ensure that licensing revenues are invested rather than lost as day-to-day spending. Over time, those returns could support public services, scientific research, regional investment, skills, green industry and the economic transition that AI will inevitably bring to our workplaces and daily lives. Access to digital technology is now essential, and no one should be left behind in a digital poverty trap. The returns should be invested in improving digital skills and access to vital technology, particularly for those in our rural and coastal communities.

Labour has always believed that we should establish public assets together for collective reward. That principle must apply just as much in the age of artificial intelligence. Britain cannot become entirely dependent on foreign-owned systems trained on British public data that deliver private profits to individuals based elsewhere.

We cannot rewrite the decisions made over North Sea oil, but we can make a different choice this time and keep control of our national data resource and the wealth it creates. 

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