AI kill switch: UK peers push for powers to shut down data centres in an emergency
Key Points
- Lords amendment would let ministers order data centres and AI systems offline in an AI emergency
- Backed by Lord Clement-Jones, Baroness Harding, Baroness Kidron, Lord Hunt and ControlAI
- Ministers rejected a shutdown power at committee stage as disproportionate
- Alex Sobel introduces a superintelligence ban bill on 8 September, endorsed by Stephen Fry
- CLTR logged 1,664 AI loss-of-control incidents in 2026 and wants emergency powers
A cross-party group of peers led by Liberal Democrat Lord Tim Clement-Jones has tabled an amendment to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill that would let the Secretary of State order data centres and AI systems to shut down in an “AI security or operational emergency”.
The amendment is co-sponsored by Baroness Dido Harding, Baroness Beeban Kidron and Lord Philip Hunt, and the campaign group has ControlAI backed it. Labour MP Alex Sobel tabled a near-identical amendment in the Commons earlier in the bill’s passage, but the Speaker did not call it for debate.
The Commons version of the text would allow regulations to hand ministers “last-resort powers” to direct the shutdown of a data centre, or of AI systems used or deployed by a data centre.
Operators of relevant data centres would have to install the infrastructure needed to carry out a shutdown, maintain secure communications with government and run shutdown exercises.
The clause also lists the circumstances in which the powers could be used, including the emergence of superintelligent AI. It defines this as systems that can “autonomously compromise national security, escape human oversight, and upend international stability”.
“As the race to build ever more powerful AI accelerates, human control, independent judicial oversight and democratic accountability must remain non-negotiable. Security by design is not enough on its own – we need a sovereign, legally-bounded safety valve of last resort,” said Clement-Jones, the amendment’s lead sponsor in the Lords.
He told the BBC the measure would create a “vital safety net” and give ministers a democratically accountable way to “halt a runaway system before it can compromise our critical national infrastructure”. He added that the power would only ever be used as a last resort.
On his own website, Clement-Jones said the government needs an “ultimate backstop” and endorsed ControlAI’s call for “strictly constrained last resort powers” to shut data centres or AI systems in a “catastrophic emergency”.
The amendment remains under debate and has not passed into law. Sobel plans to go further with a separate private member’s bill, which he is scheduled to introduce on Tuesday (8 September). ControlAI said it drafted the UK Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill with a parliamentary lawyer, and that actor and broadcaster Sir Stephen Fry has endorsed it.
The bill would:
- Prohibit the development of superintelligent AI in the UK
- Monitor and restrict the precursors to such systems
- Require the UK to seek an international agreement on superintelligence
“Britain is not sovereign without an AI kill switch,” said Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, in comments published by ControlAI. He compared the potential harm from uncontrolled superintelligence to that of a nuclear strike.
The UK proposals follow similar moves in the United States, where Representatives Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran introduced the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act in July.
The bill would require covered AI developers to maintain a technical ability to throttle, suspend or shut down their systems, and would let the Department of Homeland Security order a slowdown or shutdown, but it has only been referred to the House Homeland Security Committee and has not been enacted.
