Blockchain? What’s that? Do you wear it? Do you pull it? Do you tie ships to the quay with it? Or do you use it to replace your and your customers’ in-house ledgers with one centralised digital record of transactions? A year ago, my knowledge of blockchain was at the ‘What’s that?’ end of the spectrum. Now that I am beginning to understand a little bit about what this technology is and how it works, I can see that it has potential to transform the way insurance is transacted at all stages – purchase, implementation, claims handling – all in seconds rather than days or weeks.

The Property Boundaries (Resolution of Disputes) Bill is currently awaiting its second reading in the House of Lords. So, is this the end of the court’s involvement in boundary disputes? The notes accompanying the Earl of Lytton’s bill state its admirable intentions as being “to reduce costs and speed up the process for property boundary disputes”. Whilst it is entirely laudable to try and remove boundary disputes from the court process, I perceive potential problems with the bill as currently drafted. There is no doubt that expert determination plays an important role in resolving boundary disputes but it is, at best, only one part of the jigsaw.

Today marks the start of the 16th National Pro Bono Week, and as well as providing an opportunity to reflect on the major (and increasing) role that pro bono services play in access to justice, the event is intended to encourage other lawyers to become involved. The scale of the problem means that many lawyers think there is nothing meaningful they can do at an individual level. However, the reality is that the maxim ‘every little helps’ is very true of pro bono services and certainly, in terms of the impact on the lives of those being helped, goes a very long way.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect in May 2018. It takes the existing Data Protection Act 1998 principles to the next level and will enforce heavy fines on any non-compliant organisation. On 13 September 2017, the government introduced the Data Protection Bill. If enacted, the bill will repeal and replace the DPA and supplement the GDPR. The existing DPA and the new EU regulation are all about data privacy and the rights of the individual.

In an era when half of UK firms holding personal data were hit by a cyber breach or attack in the past year, the general public are becoming increasingly aware of where their data is stored and how it’s being protected. A few short years ago, many wouldn’t have been able to define ‘cloud technology’ or have known what a ‘ransomware attack’ is, but that has changed. Widespread coverage of these issues is growing, and scrutiny of targeted firms is intensifying.