LONDON — The British government may say sorry for the nation’s role in the slave trade when the country marks the 200th anniversary next year of the legislation that led to its abolition.

An advisory committee — chaired by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott — which is overseeing preparations for the bicentenary, is considering issuing “a statement of regret” on March 25, the date that the Slave Trade Act was passed by Parliament.

Although such a declaration is said in Whitehall to fall short of the formal apology demanded by some campaigners, it would nevertheless be seen as one.

Various institutions and cities that benefited from the slave trade have said sorry for their role. Liverpool issued an apology in 1999. In February, the General Synod of the Church of England, which profited from plantations in the West Indies and whose bishops owned slaves, voted to apologize to descendants of enslaved people.

But a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, London, A.C. Grayling, who chaired a debate in Bristol this year on whether the city should say sorry for its involvement in the trade, said: “How far should we go back? Should we demand an apology from the Italians for our enslavement by the Roman Empire? It is an absurdity.”

The head of the Royal African Society, Richard Dowden, said institutions that directly benefited could usefully issue statements of regret but added: “It would be difficult for us all to apologize.”

Prime Minister Blair set a precedent for historical apologies when he expressed regret in 1997 for Britain’s failure to relieve the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century.