We are extremely proud of Luke Brown, Matthew Campion & Shahrukh Zaffar for representing KLM UK Engineering at an Apprenticeship celebration reception yesterday, which was held at No.10 Downing Street. During the reception the guys had the chance to chat with The Rt Hon Sajid Javid – Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In a recent l the UK High Court allowed Philip Morris to inherit from his wife’s estate, despite his involvement in her assisted death. This judgment has sparked important discussions around the legalities of compassionate end-of-life decisions and the future of inheritance law in the UK. At Hatch Brenner, we are following these developments closely to guide clients in navigating estate planning amid evolving legal standards.
Case Overview and High Court Decision
Myra Morris, who was terminally ill with a degenerative neurological condition, chose assisted dying in Switzerland in late 2023. Her husband Philip accompanied her, honoring her wishes but ultimately facing the risk of forfeiting his inheritance under UK law. Traditionally, UK laws prevent individuals involved in a person’s death from inheriting their estate. However, the court ruled in Philip’s favor, acknowledging the compassionate nature of his actions and the family’s unanimous support for his inheritance rights. This judgment opens up new considerations for cases where individuals accompany loved ones abroad for and may signal a more nuanced application of the law.
Implications for the Forfeiture Rule and UK Law
The ruling marks an exception to the forfeiture rule, a legal doctrine designed to prevent individuals implicated in another’s death from benefitting financially. In this case, the court weighed Philip Morris’s compassionate motives, his wife’s explicit wishes, and the support from other beneficiaries, thus granting him his inheritance. The ruling arrives as Parliament is set to debate the Assisted Dying Bill, a proposal that would grant terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to pursue assisted dying under strict regulations.
Impact on and Assisted Dying Legislation
For families and legal practitioners, this case underscores the importance of thorough documentation in estate planning, especially when addressing end-of-life choices. The ruling invites greater sensitivity in drafting wills and administering estates in cases involving assisted death, highlighting the need for professional guidance in understanding how a client’s specific circumstances might intersect with inheritance law.
Hatch Brenner is Here to Help
At Hatch Brenner, we understand that navigating inheritance law—especially in sensitive cases involving assisted death—can be challenging. provides expert support for complex estate planning, ensuring that your final wishes are honored. If you have questions or would like to discuss your estate, please contact us to schedule a confidential consultation.
We’re pleased to announce that we are exhibitingat not one, but TWO events this year!
We will be attending both MACH 2016 andEuropean Offshore Energy 2016. Both will be heldin the same week in April at the NEC inBirmingham.
We will be displaying our weld data loggingequipment, gas flow, subsea MPI…and some brandnew equipment, to find out what, you’ll have tocome and see us!
MACH 2016 Visitor Registration:https://bit.ly/1P42Obz
European Offshore Energy Visitor Registration:https://bit.ly/1SRyCjQ
With your support we can make wishes come true so that children, young people and families can access life-changing creative experiences.
Norwich Theatre receives no regular revenue funding from any public sources. As a registered charity, we rely on the support of our audiences, community of supporters and charitable foundations, along with our commercial activities such as our café, bars and restaurant, to help us deliver our charitable mission.
Our Christmas Appeal provides a great opportunity to use the season of goodwill to raise money to support and grow our charitable activities in the coming year. For five years now our loyal supporters have shared in this tradition, raising nearly £100,000 to help make a difference for those who need it most.
Norwich Theatre’s Christmas Appeal is raising money to make wishes come true so that children, young people and families can access life-changing creative experiences.
This Christmas we are asking for your help to make sure no children, young people or families miss out.
Every donation will help us provide accessible creative activities and remove barriers for families to get creative together, who otherwise might not have the chance.
Why have we chosen this?
Families in Norfolk are facing more challenges than ever before, with thousands struggling to get by. One-third of Norfolk’s children are living in poverty. That’s nine in every classroom. They are feeling more lonely and isolated, with one quarter saying they are “unable to cope with life.”
Creative experiences shape our lives in so many ways. From the stories we read to the shows we see to the music we hear, creativity influences how we make sense of the world, connect with others, and navigate our path through life.
We know creative experiences are fundamental to a great childhood, helping to improve confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and providing children and young people with new skills and abilities. But it’s more than that. They provide a home for families to build community, find support and connect with each other.
What will the money be used for?
The money raised will ensure all children, young people, and their families can access workshops, sessions, and world-class theatre shows.
We will do this by:
• Delivering creative workshops and holiday programmes where children, young people, their parents and carers can explore their creativity through music, drama and dance.
• Offering ‘pay what you can’ activities and reduced price or free tickets for families to make sure cost is not an obstacle to taking part and families are able to experience the magic of theatre together.
• Working with charity partners to reach the children, young people and families who face the most barriers to accessing creative experiences.
How can people support the Appeal?
• Bucket collections / contactless donations:
• All performances at the Playhouse from Tue 3 Dec (A Christmas Carol) to Sun 19 Jan (Karl Minns)
• All performances of Aladdin at Theatre Royal o Contactless donation points will be available for collections at Theatre Royal and Playhouse where people can tap a card to donate £3.
• Collection boxes will be located across Theatre Royal, Playhouse and Stage Two
• Online donations can be made at norwichtheatre.org/christmas-appeal
• Christmas Appeal Raffle for £5 at Box Office or online at norwichtheatre.org/Christmas-appeal-raffle or at the Box Office. Prizes include: £150 Norwich Theatre voucher, three course meal for two in Prelude, Gold Friend membership for one year, Aladdin merchandise bundle.
• Donations across our commercial activities:
• £1 donated for every mince pie purchased in Café Royal
• 50p donated for every mulled cider purchased in Playhouse
• £2 donated for every group dining in Prelude o £1 donation off selected merchandise item.
• Businesses can become Christmas Appeal Partners
Find out more here: https://norwichtheatre.org/christmas-appeal/
Building on a successful start in Norfolk, social enterprise Swarm Apprenticeships Ltd have partnered with the RSA to strengthen their quest in Norwichto liberate and support young and talented business heroes through enterprising apprenticeships.
Founded by successful entrepreneur and bestselling business author, Robert Ashton, Swarm aims to develop young business apprentices across Norfolk, Suffolk and soon Essex. They support them to become commercially aware, enterprising and effective to their employers to deliver the greatest return on investment for businesses. Swarm offers a unique enterprise qualification and strives to grow enterprising attitudes in young people.
The RSA backs Swarm as part of their Catalyst initiative which supports RSA Fellows to get their innovative ideas and projects growing into new areas.
On April 14th2016, Swarm strengthens theirquest with an introduction event for local enterprising business owners who want to give a real opportunity for a young person to make an impact in their business and become an Enterprise Hero. The event will be heldat The Garagefrom 4.30pm. Local employers are encouraged to attend to hear from Swarm’s Founder, partner representatives about why the quest is important to the local area, and current business and apprentice champions. Sister events will also run in Colchester (Mercury Theatre, March 3rd) andIpswich (UCS, March 8th).
Swarm’s Managing Director, Chris Perry, comments,”This event is an opportunity to find out more about our unique apprenticeship training that focuses on developing both an apprentice’s commercial skills and enterprising attitude. We are looking for enterprising and innovative employers who want to give someone a real opportunity to shine and make their mark in their business.At the eventyou’ll get to find out how, over the last year, Swarm apprentices have already achieved significant impact and return for their employers and become commercially savvy young business professionals who will be the leaders oftomorrow’s economy.”
Find out more about the eventand how to book here.
Meet some current Swarm business members and Enterprise Heroes…
“I chose Swarm apprentice Harry to do my digital marketing because he understands it! On top of that Harry is enthusiastic about it, spotting opportunities in the digital world all the time and he’s a really great communicator. We’ve given him the empowerment to do all of our product photography for our digital marketing, which is incredibly important to us.” Simon Middleton, Owner and Founder, The Shackleton Company.
“What I felt was different about the Swarm apprenticeship compared to other apprenticeship providers is the focus to coach and develop a more business-like mindset, which I felt would be ideal for someone like me. Life as a Swarm apprentice could not be better. The workshops are both fun and, most importantly, useful and informative, and everyone involved in the running of the apprenticeship is very supportive and clearly wants to help and watch you succeed.” George Balding, apprentice, DSP Supplies.
“Why Swarm? I feel passionately that our education system doesn’t suit everyone. Many young people are pushed down the university route when it isn’t right for them. I feel lucky to have the chance to help a young entrepreneur navigate his first years in business and to have his fresh perspective in my company. I’m glad that Swarm matched us up and remain active in helping us along this journey. It’s going to be exciting to see where it leads us all.” Lorna Burroughes, Owner and Founder, Thrive Networking.
“My Swarm apprenticeship has made the business that I work in more efficient because it’s helped me develop more skills. The opportunities that I’ve been given here are amazing and I feel really grateful for it. It’s different to a normal business apprenticeship because it’s more inventive and you get a lot more involved. Swarm are just so with it and new, and they’re always there.” Berri Lake, apprentice, Ormiston Victory Academy.
www.swarmapprentice.org.uk /01953 609 752 / [email protected]
Pure (Pure Resourcing Solutions) has hit the massive milestone of a grand total of £100k raised for over 20 different charities.
The grand total has been achieved through sustained fundraising efforts by team members at all four of the recruitment agency’s offices in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich and Norwich since 2002.
The fundraising activity has ranged from daring challenges including the gruelling 24-hour National Three Peaks Challenge and a sponsored sky dive, alongside local events such as Cambridge’s annual Chariots of Fire relay race, the Ipswich Colour Dash and the Colchester half marathon, as well as national events including Movember and Comic Relief. Each office also hosts its own annual charity quiz night and further charitable donations have been collected at the various seminars and events which Pure holds for the local business community.
Over 24 different charities have now benefited from a share of the £100k raised by Pure in the last 13 years. This includes substantial donations to local charities including Pure’s overall chosen charity of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, which has benefitted from over £62,000. Significant donations have also been made to The J’s Hospice in Chelmsford, Arthur Rank Hospice Charity in Cambridgeshire, The Matthew Project in Norwich and the St Nicholas Hospice in Bury St Edmunds. National charitable organisations including Children in Need, Cancer Research and Action for Children have also benefited.
Gill Buchanan, Director at Pure, said: “As a socially responsible business we’ve always actively supported local charities and we are all extremely proud of having reached such a significant milestone in our fundraising activity.
“Here at Pure we believe that charity fundraising challenges are not only an important part of a company’s corporate social responsibility. They can also have a far wider impact on reinforcing a sense of teamwork and camaraderie, a culture which many businesses strive to achieve. We support our employees in any charity challenges they wish to undertake themselves, giving them additional time off to enable them to complete their chosen goal and kick-starting their fundraising with a £250 donation.”
Alongside financial donations, team members at Pure have also donated significant amounts of time to local charities over the last thirteen years. This has included volunteering their skills at decorating and gardening to help transform the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice in Quidenham, decorating at Woodgreen Animal Shelter and the Chelmsford CHESS homeless shelter. They have also sent gifts and essential goods to be delivered to a school in Gambia.
Pure’s continued commitment to fundraising has helped the organisation to be recognised at various awards including, most recently, being selected as finalists in the Corporate Social Responsibility category at last year’s East Anglian Daily Times Business Awards.
I often find myself describing the structure of tech companies in Norfolk to people. In terms of size we have Aviva at the top, a lower layer of large SMEs such as Validus, Proxama, Virgin Wines and EPoS Now in the middle and then countless micro businesses and smaller SMEs at the bottom. I’ve been aware of Brandbank for a while, but they’ve always been a bit of an enigma to me. It turns out it’s not just me and this is something they’re keen to do something about. It also turns out that with a two hundred strong workforce in Norwich alone, they deserve to be mentioned in the middle layer.
To help raise their profile locally, Brandbank are engaging in a number of local activities with the tech and business communities in Norwich. Their CIO Jeremy Glenn has spoken at the Norfolk Network, the company is a partner sponsor of NorDevCon and on Thursday Jeremy spoke about Brandbank to SyncNorwich at Whitespace. Why do Brandbank want to raise their profile locally? They need more software developers. They need quite a few of them and they need them quickly to help sustain the company’s growth.
The core business of Brandbank is to help retailers get their products online. They’re one of only a few companies who do this and they do it for a lot of large supermarkets as well as thousands of other clients. Following their inception in the late 90s, Brandbank have seen incredible growth in revenue, with very modest profits and only broke even in 2007. Since then they have seen steady growth in profits. In late 2014 they were bought by Nielsen.
Jeremy told us all about his background, how he came to join Brandbank and then how he became a director. He described many of the different things Brandbank has tried over the years, what had worked and what hadn’t and what they learned from it. Jeremy also described the horrific process of preparing to be acquired, the false starts and intensive due diligence.
Although clearly a shrewd businessman, Jeremy clearly doesn’t take himself too seriously. It was interesting to finally find out what Brandbank do and the delivery was entertaining. It will be equally interesting to see how Norwich’s previously best kept secret grows over the coming years.
Written by Paul Grenyer
Staff are putting interesting work and good management ahead of salary when it comes to job satisfaction, says the acclaimed Cooper Lomaz annual salary survey 2016 for Norfolk.
Now in its 11th year, the in-depth report by independent recruitment consultants Cooper Lomaz, which has offices in Norwich, compares salaries and analyses trends in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex in the key sectors of:
It reports that salaries and job opportunities are continuing to rise as the economy recovers.
It says salaries are only placed third when it comes to employee job satisfaction, sitting behind an interesting job and good management.
And skills shortages in some sectors mean employees are benefiting from a bidding war of salary offers as their existing bosses try to retain their services.
Average salaries in the county were £30,992, compared to £31,193 in Suffolk, £33,951 in Essex, £34,453 in Northamptonshire, £37,754 in Cambridgeshire and £41,908 in Hertfordshire.
Norfolk Trends include:
Cooper Lomaz Operations Director Mark Fletcher said the growth over the last year, and anticipated again in 2016, is a reassuring sign of confidence in the market as the economy continues its recovery.
More than half the surveyed businesses (55%) are planning to expand staffing this year as the economy is projected to grow by 2%.
Wages are increasing slightly at around 4%, with 58% of those surveyed enjoying a salary increase.
Companies are being encouraged to up their game with improved benefits, holidays, training and career opportunities to attract and retain staff.
The report is compiled from information provided by more than 2,000 professionals in specialist sectors, along with data from interviews with more than 15,000 candidates. The survey, which is most comprehensive to date, is a key tool in helping client companies and HR professionals gauge market trends, pay and benefits.
Cooper Lomaz Recruitment, which was started by two Norfolk businesswomen in 1990 and now has a turnover of around £15m, is itself looking to expand by 10% and hire another eight people for its offices at Norwich and Bury St Edmunds.
The survey will be circulated to Cooper Lomaz clients with highlights on the company website www.cooperlomaz.co.uk
We are happy to announce thatMoosey Artthe city’s newest and most excitingart galleries has jumped on board our digital signage networks across Norfolk! Using our network of screens Moosey Art are looking to increase brand awareness of the gallery, and promote their latest solo exhibition ‘SUN SHINE OUT OF MY ARTS’ by the extremely talented artist Carl Cashman coming up in February.Based out of Devon Carl Cashman has shown work all over the world in places such as: New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Miami, Amsterdam.
Moosey Art is an Urban/contemporary art gallery down Bridwell Alley which is part of the famous Norwich Lanes andofferslimited edition prints, sort after original works, promoting local Norwich based talent as well as bringing in some of the worlds greatest artists. Originallystarted in 2013 with the aim to createpop up exhibitions, bringing in the worlds greatest street artists as well as introducing people to fresh up and coming talent.After every exhibition Moosey’s reach became bigger and eventually were in a position to open up their very own gallery in 2015.
Next door to the art gallery you will find the city’s latest cafe/bar’The Alley’which opened it’s doors in December 2015. Working closely withMoosey Art the door between the café and gallery is always open, so you can drift between the two as you please. The Alley providesgreat cups of coffee, choice beers, spirits, friendly conversation a vibrant and creative atmosphere, a very clever collaboration between two businesses.
Moosey Art is also involved with some brilliant local projects such as ‘Get Walls’ a project with approved permission to paint on residential and commercial properties in Norwich, working with local and international artists in order to decorate and brighten up the city. Moosey Artare also involved with ‘The Underground Gallery’ which can be found down the underpass on St Stephens roundabout. With the help of 48 local artists they have managed to transform the underpass from an eyesore into a pleasant and vibrant walk for commuters!
It’s a pleasure to be working alongside such a remarkable new business -increasing brand it’s awareness on our ‘Domination Circuit’ comprising of three screens and has a weekly audience of 350,000+ people. Moosey Art is certainly an asset to the business/local community and showcases what our fine city is about!
For more information on their latest exhibition visit their facebook event page Carl Cashman ‘Sun Shines Out Of My Arts’.For more information about Moosey Art, other up and coming exhibitions, the shop gallery, the artists and more, visit their website –www.mooseyart.co.uk
Our workshops have a high satisfaction rating, thanks to our specialist trainers and workshop ‘curator’ Jo Barnard.
New Anglia Growth Hub Workshops
We have in-person and online workshops with topics you can’t do without nowadays, including AI, making tax digital, website health check and more.
Discover and book our fully funded sessions in Norfolk:
Website Health Check, Weds 5 Nov, King’s Lynn.
How to Use Data to Produce a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy, Weds 12 Nov, Cromer.
YouTube Marketing for Your Business, Weds 19 Nov, Great Yarmouth.
Tourism Marketing Masterclass, Weds 26 Nov, online.
Creating Great Online Content, Tue 2 Dec, Cromer.
Eligibility: The in-person and LinkedIn workshops are open to any trading business, freelancer, or charity based Norfolk.
Funded by UK Government and on behalf of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, and North Norfolk District Council.
We are delighted to announce that we are working with Stonehage Fleming and Partners. The company has recently undergone a merger between Stonehage and the Fleming family who created the James Bond series. The merger of the two firms has enabled Stonehage Fleming to become the largest asset management company in the world, looking after a total of £42 billion worth of assets including family wealth, property and art.
What work we have done for them
As part of the new merger, Stonehage Fleming needed a new website to combine the brands and this included a new image, colour scheme and values. But an issue with new sites is that Google may take weeks or months to update and your brand may fall off Google temporarily.
Our role as consultants wasto focus on the SEO, which is our speciality. We needed to ensure a smooth transitition of the new websites and allow the brands to maintain their high positions on Google so the firm couldbe easily contacted by existing and potential clients.
As a result, we focused heavily on cleaning up all the broken links and pages on the new site, a cleaned up link profile and some fresh content in the form of meta-data, text and images. In addition, we had to ensure all the correct address (all 13 offices) were showing correctly on Google maps and could be found easily by clients. We engaged in thorough testing to make surethe site worked well on all devices of desktop, mobile and tablet to consolidate the user experience.
We maximised the crawling and indexing of the site with a brand new sitemap and updated the webmaster tools account accordingly.We have monitored the search results very carefully using our SEO tools and have ensured that the new site has been ranking strongly since its launch, especially for competitive keywords such as family office.
We are thrilled to be working with Stonehage Fleming and wish them the best of luck with their new venture.
Hey data explorers! 👋 Is your analytics dashboard giving you a headache? With all those charts, graphs, and mysterious metrics flying around, it’s easy to feel like you need a PhD in Data Science just to understand your website’s performance. Don’t worry – we’re about to turn that data overwhelm into “aha!” moments.
Let’s ditch the vanity metrics and focus on numbers that matter to your bottom line. Because let’s be honest – having a million page views means nothing if nobody’s buying what you’re selling!
This is the big one, folks. It’s like the sports score of your website – it tells you if you’re winning or not. But here’s what most people miss:
A high bounce rate is like having a store where everyone walks in, takes one look around, and immediately walks out. Not great. Here’s what to watch for:
This is where it gets interesting! Understanding how users move through your site is like being a detective – every click tells a story:
Some warning signs that should make you sit up and pay attention:
Not all metrics are created equal. Here’s what really deserves your attention:
Here’s the thing about analytics – they’re only useful if you actually do something with them. Think of it like a fitness tracker – just wearing it won’t make you fit. You need to use that data to make changes!
Data doesn’t have to be daunting. Focus on the metrics that matter to your business goals, and don’t get lost in the analytics rabbit hole. Remember – the goal isn’t to have perfect numbers, it’s to understand what your users are doing and why.
Need help making sense of your website’s analytics? Or maybe you want to set up proper tracking that actually helps you make decisions? Let’s chat! We’re fluent in both data and human. 📊
P.S. Here’s a fun fact: You’ve made it to the end of this article! That’s a great engagement metric right there. See? Analytics can be fun! 😉