UK bill lags behind the EC ruling on digital signatures

The European Commission (EC) has overtaken the UK in legislating for the recognition of digital signatures.

European telecoms ministers have approved the Electronic Signature Directive, which requires EU member states to pass laws giving digital signatures the same status as their handwritten equivalents by the end of next year.

The UK government is planning to rework its plans in the same area to deal with the move.

The directive means the government will have to toughen up its Electronic Communications Bill. During a Commons debate on the bill, e-minister Patricia Hewitt said that the government will amend the bill in any ways necessary to meet the EC directive's provisions. "The UK government is going to have to change a fair bit to get in line," warned John Salmon, a partner at law firm Masons. One difference is that the present UK bill only makes digital signatures admissible as authentication of the signer's identity. The European directive makes them equal to a written signature on all counts, including contracts, where signatures indicate more than just identity.

Salmon said the European ruling will also prevent any member state setting up a compulsory key escrow scheme for holders of encryption keys, although the UK government has already said it will not do this.

Salmon said the Irish government is implementing similar legislation, but that all the European Union countries will now be obliged to follow suit.

The US Senate recently passed the Millennium Digital Commerce bill, which makes the same basic ruling as the European directive. This states that digital signatures and contracts are not invalid just because they are not in paper form. This is an interim measure, until the individual states - under whose law commercial contracts are written - pass their own ecommerce bills.

The US bill has still to pass through a committee stage, and then be approved by both the Senate and House of Representatives.