The UK government has launched a consultation on the use of workplace monitoring technologies (WMT), including surveillance tools, algorithmic management systems and AI-enabled decision-making. The consultation forms part of the wider Make Work Pay agenda and seeks views on whether additional regulation is needed to improve transparency, worker engagement and accountability when employers monitor workers.
Key dates:
- Consultation opened: 8 July 2026
- Consultation closes: 30 September 2026
What are WMT?
The government uses the term WMT to refer to digital tools used by employers to collect, track, analyse or make decisions based on information about workers and their activities.
The capabilities of these technologies encompass a range of data collection and reporting, from digital activity and location tracking to communication surveillance. WMT include technologies used to observe performance, behaviour, attendance or communications. They also include systems that use this data to inform or make decisions affecting workers. These technologies may operate in physical workplaces or remotely, including through digital platforms. They can incorporate the use of automated decision making and algorithmic management, including AI.
What are the current legal requirements in respect of WMT?
UK employers are required to comply with the usual data protection requirements in respect of WMT and processing personal data – namely that they must ensure and be able to demonstrate that the usage is lawful, fair and proportionate and complies with other relevant data protection principles and requirements, including regarding transparency, purpose and storage limitation, security and, where relevant, conducting data protection impact assessments. Particularly intrusive WMT may be difficult to justify or implement lawfully in practice. Stricter requirements apply if special category data (such as biometric data used to uniquely identify an individual, or health data) is captured. In addition, to the extent that WMT usage involves automated decision-making that produces legal (or similarly significant) effects on individuals without meaningful human involvement, then additional obligations will apply and certain safeguards are required to be put in place.
It is also important to keep in mind that workers have a legitimate expectation of a degree of privacy in the workplace in the UK. That expectation is also likely to be significantly greater when working from home. The ICO has released detailed specific guidance on monitoring workers, which includes the following helpful advice: “When deciding whether to monitor workers, carefully balance your business interests as an employer and workers’ rights and freedoms under data protection law. If you carry out monitoring in a way which is unfair, this will impact on their rights and freedoms under data protection law. It will also negatively affect the trust between you and your workers, as well as potentially affecting their mental wellbeing. Just because a form of monitoring is available, does not mean it is the best way to achieve your aims. You must be clear about your purpose and select the least intrusive means to achieve it.”
While the ICO is in the process of reviewing and updating its guidance as a result of recent changes to the UK data protection regime pursuant to the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, we do not expect that it will change its position on this advice in any fundamental way.
Why has the government issued this consultation?
Evidence suggests that use of WMT in the workplace has increased in recent years, with a 2025 survey of UK managers finding that 1 in 3 organisations actively monitor their employees’ digital activity, up from 1 in 5 in 2023. It is to be expected that there has been an increase in the use of such technologies to reflect the widespread switch to homeworking during the pandemic, but these figures suggest that the uptake of such technologies is increasing swiftly.
The government believes that responsible, transparent and proportionate use of WMT
has the potential to enhance outcomes for both employers and for workers. It can support
more consistent and efficient tracking of performance, improve processes, identify training
needs and reduce costs. It can also enhance regulatory compliance, reduce or identify
misconduct and strengthen organisational security.
However, evidence also highlights potential risks and harms where WMT is poorly
designed, explained or governed. And if employees are being monitored when they are at home, what does this mean for their private lives and that higher expectation of privacy? Does/should the WMT involve monitoring keystrokes (which the ICO deems to be high risk processing), or might it also involve utilising feeds from cameras? It doesn’t take a very vivid imagination to realise the potentially dire ramifications of this for employees – including the risk of (inadvertently) capturing special category data, in which case the employer must have a special category condition, as well as a lawful basis, before it starts that monitoring. In 2024, the very aptly named Big Brother Watch released a report in which it “found that too often a ‘surveillance first, questions later’ approach is taken by companies, with productivity being prioritised over workers’ autonomy and dignity to justify intrusive monitoring”.
The government is therefore seeking information from businesses, trade unions, business groups, workers, non-governmental organisations and all other interested parties about how WMT are used across sectors, how they are understood, and how decisions about them and arising from their use are made in practice.
As a result, the consultation paper includes a mix of information-gathering questions to understand the current usage of WMT, but also potential options for regulation, including:
- a new statutory code of practice plus guidance;
- a new legislative requirement to consult with trade unions or elected representatives on WMT; or
- non-statutory WMT guidance.
The consultation paper sets out the government’s understanding of the likely benefits and limitations/downsides of each option, with the opportunity for respondents to make their own comments.
Next steps
The government will review responses before deciding whether further regulatory intervention is required. Employers that rely on monitoring technologies, workforce analytics or AI-driven management tools may wish to engage with the consultation before the 30 September 2026 deadline.
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