Month: April 2021

The transition period ended on 31^st December 2020.  The Government announced that the Treaty agreed with the EU will allow personal data to flow freely from the EU (and EEA) to the UK, until adequacy decisions have been adopted, for no more than six months.

The Information Commissioners Office recommend as a sensible precaution, before and during this period that businesses that work with EU and EEA organisations who transfer personal data to them put in place alternative transfer mechanisms, to safeguard against any interruption to the free flow to EU and UK personal data.  

On the 19^th February 2021 the European Commission published its draft decisions on the UK’s adequacy under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) and Law Enforcement Directive (LED). In both cases, the European Commission has found the UK to be adequate.

The draft decisions will now be considered by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and a committee of the 27 EU Member Governments. 

However, an adequacy decision is not guaranteed, and it has been widely recommended by various regulatory bodies and indeed Brokers Ireland that at a minimum, company’s ensure that GDPR appropriate safeguards in place, such as SCC’s with business partners to ensure business continuity. In being proactive MIS took steps to issue SCC’s ahead of the initial extension period expiration date April 2021.  A further extension has now been agreed to end June 2020.

We would like to take this opportunity to explain that the SCC’s relate to our Breakdown Recovery Service in the Republic of Ireland.  Whilst we endeavour to administrate this service from our local Irish office it may become necessary for overflow to be actioned by our Belfast Office.  With the nature of this service, we wish to be in a position to assist customers quickly and efficiently.

MIS Underwriting Limited, Dundalk will continue to administrator all MIS Underwiring Insurance Products exclusively.

We would hope that the UK will receive the adequacy decision and the SCC’s will not be required, however we feel it is best to be prepared ahead of time. 

With the recent announcements from Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen and many other vehicle manufacturers, electric cars are a prevalent topic of conversation. With these manufacturers announcing their plans for electric vehicles in the future and many advising they will no longer be manufacturing combustion engines in years to come, electric sales are on the rise.

We are seeing many more electric vehicles on the roads in NI and ROI and many are harnessing the economical benefits that the electric vehicles provide. With running costs at a third of those of combustion engines and with improving range it is the most beneficial solution to many new car buyers.

At MIS, we provide like-for-like replacement hire vehicles to those who have been involved in a non-fault accident. With the increase of electric vehicles on our roads it is predicted that the number of electric vehicles involved in accidents will in turn increase also (not due to the fact it is an electric vehicle in itself). We don’t want to see these drivers suffer. We want to be able to continue like-for-like vehicles to all clients including electric vehicle owners.

MIS are extremely excited to announce that we have now added the first electric vehicles to our wide ranging fleet to provide these replacement vehicles to those in need. Electric vehicle owners should not have to revert back to combustion engines following an accident in order to keep them on the road and our fleet will change/develop in line with consumer trends over the next 10 years.

We appreciate that many electric vehicle owners have opted to drive these to help in the conscious effort against climate change and we don’t want them to feel they have to diminish these efforts by reverting to a combustion engine whilst awaiting on their electric vehicle to be repaired.

We are excited to continue to move forward in this venture in a conscious effort to help the public and the environment!

On 1st March 2021, staff of MIS, family, friends and business companions set off on a ‘virtual’ journey around the perimeter of Ireland. Taking on 1970 miles, the staff were split into teams to challenge each other in walking the quickest around Ireland.

The Mighty MIS Walk Around Ireland page was one of the most successful Just Giving pages in the month of March. Out of thousands of fundraisers we were in the top 1%! This is an achievement we are very proud of. We must also mention that we have received substantial offline donations and we look forward to announcing the total raised when all teams have completed their walks.

Macaulay Wray Solicitors, one of our panel solicitors in Northern Ireland formed a team and have already made their way around Ireland (and a little extra). They were the first and currently the only team across the finish line! We would like to say a big thank you to the team for their effort, support and donation and of course well done for being the first to complete the challenge.

McCartan Turkington Breen, another of our panel solicitors have also joined us on the ‘virtual’ journey. Despite being a smaller team of walkers they are making great headway so far. A massive thank you to all at Team MTB for their support and donation to Hope House.

Thank you also to our recovery agents and other companies who have donated also. We are grateful to work with such fantastic companies throughout NI & ROI.

We could not have achieved this recognition without the help of everyone who has taken part and those who have donated. To the members of the public who have also taken part in the walk, we want to say a massive thank you too! We are overwhelmed with the support we have been shown during this challenge and are proud to raise money for such a worthy charity, Hope House Ireland.

Follow our social media pages to keep up to date with the location of the teams. If you still wish to donate you can do so via our Just Giving page.