All Party Writers Group Winter Reception

The APWG is the Parliamentary group that represents the interests of writers, consisting of MPs and Lords from across the political spectrum.

The event was hosted by All Party Writers Group Chair, Chris Evans MP, who opened proceedings by providing an overview of recent political developments and reflecting on the importance of literacy, as 2026 has been announced as the National Year of Reading:

“Reading changed my life and is the reason I’m standing here today. It opened up a new world to me beyond the realms I grew up in. The National Year of Reading will increase awareness of this important issue and help to address the steep decline in reading in all age groups, especially children. It aims to engage everyone to improve the reading culture in the UK, with a focus on giving children better chances in life through literacy skills.”

ALCS Chair Lord Clement-Jones discussed the need for a licensing regime to address the unauthorised use of writers’ works to train AI systems, as well as ALCS’s exploration of a licence for AI training:

“Copyright-created content is not an input to be taken for granted, but an asset that needs clear, enforceable rights. Creators want a regime based on transparency, licencing, choice and transparency. We are arguing for licensing models that that give technology companies access to the content they require, while preserving genuine choice and control for creators.

ALCS is working with the Copyright Licensing Agency in developing a specific licence for training generative AI systems, initially focused on professional academic and business content, where licencing is already well embedded and where small language models can be tested and trained in a controlled way.”

Dr. Clementine Collett, from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, spoke about her recent research into the impacts of AI on novelists:

“The recommendations from our research really focus on amplifying the voices of these literary creatives. And the report recommends fostering a licencing market, which is underpinned by transparency from AI companies and training data that is based on informed consent and fair remunerations for creatives for the use of their work.”

Tim Dawson, Freelance Organiser at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), spoke about the SCOOP initiative and the survey of its freelance members on their views on a potential collective licensing scheme:

“The SCOOP initiative between ALCS, the NUJ and others to creative a collective collection model that would fairly reward freelance journalists for secondary uses of their work. The NUJ surveyed its freelance members to gather their opinions about AI and the potential appeal of a model such as this. More than 400 NUJ members responded and three fifths of them thought that their work should only be used for AI learning with their explicit consent. A similar proportion thought where their material had already been used for AI learning, compensation through collective licencing would be appropriate.”

You can learn more about the All Party Writers Group here.