In the UK I think it depends how much you torrent, how often, and who your ISP is. I’m pretty sure the big main ISPs all have to be vigilant and tell their customers off for doing it. I use a small ISP, and I set my upload speed to 10Mbits and my download to half my max bandwidth. I don’t seed a library of stuff just whatever is being downloaded, then I stop. So yes. I’m a leech and have been for years. No VPN. However we only torrent when we can’t get something on a service we already pay for so not more than 3 times a week.

tl;dr - in the UK use a small ISP and stay below the radar and you’ll be fine.