- UK Government promotes OpenAI partnership as part of its AI Action Plan
- The move grants data sovereignty to UK users for customer content.
- Ministry of Justice officials will also have access to ChatGPT for companies
The UK government has announced a deal with OpenAI to expand the UK’s sovereign AI capability, providing more data security for users.
Starting October 24, 2025, British customers and developers will have the option to store their data on UK servers, helping to comply with data protection laws including the GDPR, a much stricter set of requirements than their US counterparts.
This will be a welcome announcement for many UK businesses, many of which do not know where their data is stored. The lack of data sovereignty has been a cause of growing concern, as many are concerned about the potential ramifications of having their data stored in the United States.
Stored in the region
The new ChatGPT workspace, with data residency, is configured to store client content in the chosen region at rest. This includes files, image generation, conversations, code interpreter and data analysis, canvas, ChatGPT memory, and custom GPT.
This still leaves some information that may be stored outside of the selected area, including but not limited to; workspace metadata, third-party services, connectors and MCPs, and transient or processing steps (required for service functionality).
As part of the government’s AI action plan, this latest deal also brings ChatGPT to civil servants at the Ministry of Justice, providing ChatGPT Enterprise to 2,500 employees.
“The number of people using our products in the UK has quadrupled over the past year,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
“It’s exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity and get more done. Civil servants are using ChatGPT to improve public services and established businesses are reimagining their operations. We are proud to continue supporting the UK and the government’s AI plan.”
The government has already laid out extensive plans to inject AI into the UK public sector, which, together with £14 billion in private sector investment, aim to take the country to the top of the global AI market for both consumers and businesses.
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