UK ECA · Electronic Communications Act 2000
The UK's statutory basis for admissible electronic signatures.
What it is
Section 7 of the ECA 2000 declares that an electronic signature is admissible in evidence in legal proceedings — full stop. The UK Law Commission's 2019 report further confirmed that an electronic signature can satisfy a statutory 'in writing' or 'signed' requirement for almost all commercial documents.
Scope
All English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish courts. Post-Brexit the UK kept eIDAS as retained EU law (UK eIDAS Regulation 2019) — domestic UK qualified signatures are recognised, but EU QES recognition now requires the bilateral agreement to be invoked.
What letssign.now does
Our signatures exceed the ECA 2000 statutory baseline. The audit trail (IP, timestamp, device fingerprint), PAdES-B seal, and RFC 3161 timestamp produce evidence of intent and authenticity well above what English courts have historically accepted as sufficient.
Deeper detail
The Law Commission 2019 reportExpandClose
Confirmed that electronic signatures satisfy 'in writing' requirements under English law, including for deeds (with two witnesses, as for ink). Removed the last major ambiguity that procurement teams used to cite as a reason to print-sign-scan.
Post-Brexit divergenceExpandClose
The UK retained eIDAS as 'UK eIDAS'. EU QES are not automatically recognised as UK QES, but the underlying signature evidence — certificate, timestamp, audit trail — is identical and accepted by UK courts. Practical impact for commercial contracts: zero.
Related standards
The frameworks above interlock. Each linked page covers one in full.
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