Artificial Intelligence (Regulation and Employment Rights) Bill

Artificial intelligence value chain

1. In this Act, “value chain” means the tools, services, code, components, and processes that are the steps by which an artificial intelligence system accrues utility before the ultimate deployment of an artificial intelligence system in decision-making.
2. The steps in a value chain include –
   1. training data acquisition,
   2. creation of training data sets,
   3. data collection,
   4. data manipulation,
   5. data pre-processing,
   6. model selection,
   7. model training and re-training,
   8. model testing, validation, and evaluation,
   9. software integration,
   10. application configuration, and
   11. other similar steps in the development of the system.
        

Decision-making

1. In this Act “decision-making” means any decision, including profiling, whether to act or not to act, made by an employer or its agent in relation to its employees, workers or jobseekers taken or supported by an artificial intelligence system.
2. In this Act, “profiling” means decision–making by any form of processing of data by an artificial intelligence system to -
   1. evaluate one or more personal aspects relating to a natural person, or
   2. analyse, compare, or make predictions.
3. Profiling for the purposes of this Act includes decisions concerning any one or more of the following aspects of a person -
   1. their performance at work or potential performance at work,
   2. their suitability for work or employment more generally,
   3. their interest in work or employment opportunity,
   4. their membership or potential interest in membership of trade union or other collective initiatives,
   5. their trade union activities or involvement in other collective initiatives,
   6. their state of health,
   7. their protected characteristics,
   8. their personal preferences,
   9. their interests,
   10. their reliability,
   11. their behaviour,
   12. their attitude toward an employment function,
   13. their location or movements, or
   14. any other similar attribute.

4. Subsection (1) does not apply to decision-making in relation to the provision of a benefit, facility or service by the employer or agent (A) to employees, workers or jobseekers where A is concerned with the provision (for payment or not) of a benefit, facility or service of the same description to the public.
    

High-risk

1. In this Act, decision-making is “high-risk” in relation to a worker, employee, or jobseeker, if it has the capacity or potential to produce –
   1. legal effects concerning them, or
   2. other similarly significant effects.
2. In this Act “legal effect” is to be construed and applied by reference to the rights and responsibilities of a worker, employee, or jobseeker, arising from or by reason of –
   1. the common law,
   2. contract law,
   3. the law of tort or delict, or
   4. any of the statutory provisions set out in Schedule 1.
3. Unless an employer or their agent can prove otherwise, any decision- making listed in Schedule 2 is high-risk.
4. The Secretary of State may make regulations to give further guidance as to the factors on which the employer may rely to show that decision making is not high-risk; before making such regulations the Secretary of State shall consult with such organisations of employers and employees as he considers appropriate.

Data

In this Act -

1. “Data” means “personal data”, “biometric data” and “synthetic data”.
2. “Personal data” means any information relating to an identifiable living individual.
3. “Biometric data” means personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological, or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person, and which is the product of decision-making or is used for decision-making.
4. “Synthetic data” is data that has been generated using a purpose built mathematical model or algorithm, with the purpose of using it in place of personal data and with the aim of solving one or more of a set of data science tasks.
5. “Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to –
   1. an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
   2. one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of the individual.

Processing

1. In this Act “processing”, in relation to information, means an operation or a set of operations which is performed on information, or on sets of information.
2. “Processing” includes, but is not limited to, the following operations in respect of information –
   1. its collection, recording, organisation, structuring, or storage,
   2. its adaption or alteration,
   3. its retrieval, consultation, or use,
   4. its disclosure by transmission, dissemination
   5. its otherwise being made available,
   6. its alignment or combination,
   7. its restriction, erasure, or destruction, and
   8. any other similar operation.

Emotion Recognition Technology

In this Act “emotion recognition technology” means an artificial intelligence system used in whole or in part for the purpose of identifying or inferring the attention, emotions, or intentions of natural persons on the basis of their biometric data.

Employees, workers, jobseekers, and employers

In this Act -

1. “Contract of employment” means a contract of service or apprenticeship, whether express or implied, and (if it is express) whether oral or in writing.
2. “Employee” means an individual who has entered into, or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under), a contract of employment.
3. “Worker” means an individual who has entered into, or works under (or, where employment has ceased, worked under), —
   1. a contract of employment, or
   2. any other contract, whether express or implied and (if it is express) whether oral or in writing, whereby the individual undertakes to do or personally perform any work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the contract that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual; and any reference to a worker’s contract shall be construed accordingly.
4. “Jobseeker” means a person who is actively seeking new employment, whether or not that person is already employed.
5. “Employer” means -
   1. in relation to an employee or a worker, the person by whom the employee or worker is (or, where the employment has ceased, was) employed, and
   2. in relation to a jobseeker, a person engaging in the process of identifying jobseekers with a view to entering into an employment relationship with one or more of them.
6. “Employment”—
   1. in relation to an employee, means employment under a contract of employment,
   2. in relation to a worker, means employment under his contract,
   3. in relation to a jobseeker, means employment whether as an employee or as a worker.

Trade union

In this Act a “trade union” has the same meaning as section 1 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Amendment of the Core Concepts

1. The Secretary of State shall keep under review the developments of technologies based on, or associated with, the collection of data relating to employment, for the purpose of deciding whether to amend the Core Concepts.
2. For this purpose, not less than every two years from the commencement of this Act, the Secretary of State shall consult with appropriate organisations of employers and of employees and workers, in order to keep under review the developments of technologies based on, or associated with, the collection of data relating to employment.
3. The Secretary of State may by order amend the Core Concepts –
   1. In sections to 9 to take account of developments in the capacities of artificial intelligence systems, and
   2. In section and Schedule 2 to take account of developments in the assessment of risk in relation to the use and capacities of artificial intelligence systems.

Guidance

1. The Secretary of State shall publish guidance as required by the provisions of this Act by order.
2. The Secretary of State may by order also publish guidance including technical standards to supplement this Act for the purpose of addressing how the Core Concepts may be assessed, evaluated, and understood.
3. Guidance, whether published pursuant to subsection (1) or (2), may make different provision for different circumstances.
4. An employment tribunal or regulator having functions under this Act, shall take into account any relevant guidance published by the Secretary of State, in exercising those functions.