Are electronic signatures legal in the UK?

What does UK law say about electronic signatures?

There is no single e-signature statute in the UK. Section 7 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 says an electronic signature, and the certification of one, is admissible in legal proceedings on the question of authenticity or integrity. Whether a signature is valid is left mainly to the common law, which has always cared about intention to authenticate rather than about ink.

The Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/696) keep a UK version of the EU eIDAS rules, now called UK eIDAS, which defines advanced and qualified electronic signatures. The Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 added a separate regime for possessable trade documents such as bills of lading and bills of exchange.

In September 2019 the Law Commission published Electronic execution of documents (Law Com No 386). Its conclusion was that an electronic signature can meet a statutory requirement for a signature, provided the person intended to authenticate the document and there is no specific rule saying otherwise. The government accepted that statement of the law.

What have the courts decided?

The leading cases are about emails, which tells you how low the formal bar is. In Golden Ocean Group v Salgaocar Mining Industries [2012] EWCA Civ 265 the Court of Appeal held that a typed name at the end of an email could sign a guarantee under the Statute of Frauds. In Neocleous v Rees [2019] EWHC 2462 (Ch) an automatic email footer was enough to sign a contract for the sale of land under section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989.

The limits are real too. In J Pereira Fernandes SA v Mehta [2006] EWHC 813 (Ch) an email address added automatically by the system was not a signature, because nobody intended it to authenticate anything. In R (Mercury Tax Group) v HMRC [2008] EWHC 2721 (Admin) the court criticised a signing process where signature pages were detached from one document and attached to another. Both point to the same thing: show that the signer meant to sign this exact document.

Deeds, land and Scotland

A deed must be signed in the presence of a witness who attests the signature (section 1 of the 1989 Act). Signing a deed electronically is fine, but the Law Commission's view is that the witness has to be physically present; watching over video is not enough under the current law. HM Land Registry accepts electronic signatures on registrable deeds only through the methods set out in its Practice Guide 82, which normally involve a conveyancer.

Scotland has its own regime. The Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Electronic Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2014 require an advanced electronic signature for an electronic document that the law requires to be in writing, such as a contract for an interest in land. Ordinary Scottish contracts that need no formal writing can be signed with a simple electronic signature.

Simple, advanced and qualified signatures

UK eIDAS keeps three levels. A simple electronic signature is any data in electronic form that the signer uses to sign. An advanced one must be uniquely linked to and capable of identifying the signer, created with data under the signer's sole control, and linked to the document so that later changes can be detected. A qualified one is an advanced signature made with a qualified device and backed by a qualified certificate.

For an ordinary English contract the level rarely matters: the common law accepts a simple signature if intention is shown. The levels matter where a statute or regulator asks for one, as the Scottish rules do, or where you want a stronger presumption about who signed.

Evidence to keep and where Sign PDF fits

Keep the signed PDF itself, a record of how each signer was identified, when they signed, and proof that the document was not changed after signing. If you rely on counterparts, keep each signed copy whole rather than a loose signature page, which is the Mercury problem.

Sign PDF gives you a simple electronic signature with that evidence attached: email code verification, explicit consent to sign electronically, IP address, device and UTC times for each signer, a SHA-256 fingerprint of the original and a hash-chained audit trail, sealed with an independent DigiCert timestamp. It suits employment contracts, NDAs, assured shorthold tenancy agreements, supplier contracts and board consents. It is not an advanced signature for Scottish formal writings, it does not provide a physically present witness for a deed, and wills need paper and two witnesses. This page is general information, not legal advice; take advice from a UK solicitor for deeds, property and estates.