E-signature set for law.

Digital signatures are set to become legally recognised early next year, following the inclusion of the Electronic Communications Bill in the Queen's speech last week.

The government unveiled the final version of the bill to be presented to the House of Commons. Until now, the bill has only been published in draft form.Many contentious parts of the legislation have been either abandoned or toned down. An unpopular section which would have helped security forces bug email - and possibly cost Internet service providers 10% of their revenues - has been removed. It will reappear in the Home Office's Investigatory Powers Bill.

The Electronic Communications Bill makes electronic signatures legally equivalent to written ones. 'It will enable us to modernise hundreds of years of statutes, containing some 40,000 references to writing,' said eminister Patricia Hewitt. She hopes it will receive Royal Assent next April.

The bill gives the government a five-year option to establish a statutory, although voluntary, scheme to accredit suppliers of digital signatures and other encryption services. It will use this option if it is not happy with industry developed schemes. Hewitt said she hopes to say more about such a scheme when the bill is discussed in parliament next Monday.

The Computing Services and Software Association and many fellow technology firms support the new bill, with Microsoft saying it hopes the model will be copied throughout Europe.

The legislation contains an explicit commitment not to impose key escrow, under which people using encryption software would have to deposit copies of their electronic keys with trusted third parties.

Lobby group Foundation for Information Policy Research, which campaigned against key escrow for two years, said: 'With a few reservations - concerning a loophole on the prohibition of key escrow and the technical definitions of electronic signatures - we think this is a splendid outcome.'