Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of digital piracy and intellectual property infringement on UK businesses.

The UK Government recognises the challenges that digital piracy creates for intellectual property (IP) owners, creators and businesses. We work closely with law enforcement partners, rights holders, consumers, and industry to understand where and how this is taking place.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has conducted research into the scale of digital piracy, and IP infringement more broadly across multiple sectors. For example, two IPO consumer surveys published in 2025 demonstrated that digital piracy continues to be a challenge in the UK. In 2024, 29% of UK residents aged 12+ (around 17.2 million) had recently accessed online content that infringed IP rights. This activity can have a negative impact on businesses. These impacts include, but are not limited to, lost sales and the costs related to monitoring and enforcement.

This information is used, along with other data we collect on online infringement (e.g., use of counterfeit goods) to help design measures that can affect consumer behaviour and provide cost-effective, targeted enforcement procedures.