Data Use and Access Bill – Data Sharing and Data Protection

The second day of Committee Stage for the Data Use and Access Bill on 10 December 2024 saw close scrutiny of provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Bill related to the processing of personal data. This is an incredibly important piece of legislation that aims to harness the power of data for economic growth, as …

Data Use and Access Bill – Cyber Security and Digital Verification Service

On Tuesday 3 December, members of the House of Lords began Committee Stage – a detailed, line by line, scrutiny of the Data (Use and Access) Bill. It is an incredibly important piece of legislation that will: pave the way for the ‘smart data’ model to be used in more sectors establish a trust framework for …

ESG: existential, seismic and global

I wrote last year about why it’s time to think of ESG, not as environmental, social and governance but as existential, seismic and global. Yesterday (29th November 2022) I spoke at a conference – Sustainable Finance Live – and again called on people to think of ESG as existential, seismic and global. Not only is the …

Electronic Trade Documents Bill

One of the most important bills you’ve never heard of Today (12th October 2022), in the House of Lords, the Government introduced an incredibly important piece of legislation. The Electronic Trade Documents Bill will allow the digitization of trade documents. A small sounding Bill, it is nonetheless one that will have a colossal impact. This …

UK Infrastructure Bank Bill – Levelling Up and Inclusion Amendments

The UK Infrastructure Bank Bill is making it’s way through Parliament. The aim of the bill is to place the UK Infrastructure Bank (currently operating on an interim basis) on a statutory footing. The purpose of the bank is to invest in infrastructure that will tackle climate change and support regional and local economic growth. It’s an …

AI Policy Debated in House of Lords

I was delighted to take part in a debate in the House of Lords highlighting the work of our Select Committee on AI. Our original report, AI in the UK: ready, willing and able?, was published in 2018 and made a large number of recommendations to the government. A follow up report was published in …

21st Century Frictionless Trade: The UK can lead but govt. must act.

Today [Tuesday 15th September] I am delighted to publish a new Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) report on “Reducing Friction in International Trade” (RFIT). Using a combination of distributed ledger technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) devices the RFIT project demonstrates a comprehensive supply chain data management system for Australia/UK wine imports in which all the …