It was heartening to read that the question of access to an individual's digital assets after their death or incapacity has been raised by Ian Paisley MP, by way of his Private Members' bill. This is a question which needs a lot more consideration by our government, and other governments across the globe.

Almost everybody nowadays has at least one digital asset, whether it be photos on their mobile phone, an online bank account, a social media account or a cryptocurrency holding. Many people will have all of these, and more. Most will have significant financial and/or sentimental value and yet this is an area where the law has fallen far behind the technology, leading to a whole host of issues where the personal representatives of the deceased are unable to access these assets, at least without a time-consuming and expensive legal process.

Personally, I think that the proposal to grant immediate access to the next of kin of a deceased or incapacitated person’s digital assets requires further consideration. One can easily think of examples where private information could come to light which the deceased would have wanted to keep private, if their entire digital life became accessible to their loved ones after their death. Safeguards would also need to be considered to protect assets from fraud. However, it is important that these issues be discussed in Parliament and Mr Paisley's bill is therefore to be welcomed in my opinion as a starting point.

It was, however, disappointing to read the suggestion at the end of the article that the bill is "unlikely to become law due to a lack of parliamentary time" – parliamentary time to debate and craft a suitable response to the problems currently faced by so many personal representatives, and the distress caused to so many surviving family members, following the death of an individual with digital assets is exactly what is needed.