E-signatures · Glossary

Are electronic signatures legal in the UK?

Yes for most documents. Section 7 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 makes an electronic signature admissible in evidence, the retained version of the eIDAS rules keeps the three signature levels in domestic law, and the Law Commission confirmed in 2019 that an electronic signature can execute a contract where the signatory intends to authenticate it.

The legal answer settled years ago, yet the practical questions did not. Deeds, witnessing and registry filings are where a United Kingdom signing process still has to slow down.

Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder

5 min read · Published 12 September 2026

What each kind of United Kingdom document needs
Document	Electronic signature	Extra formality
Simple contract	Accepted, with intent to authenticate	None
Deed by an individual	Accepted in principle	A witness who observes the signing, then attests
Deed by a company	Accepted	Two officers, or one officer plus a witness
Land registry dealings	Only in the forms the registry permits	Follow the registry's own signing rules
Statutory declaration or affidavit	Generally not	Sworn or affirmed before an authorised person

Three sources, one answer

United Kingdom law on this sits in three layers, which is why the question keeps coming back. The Electronic Communications Act 2000 deals with admissibility: an electronic signature and its certification are admissible in evidence about the authenticity or integrity of a communication. The retained eIDAS regime supplies the vocabulary of simple, advanced and qualified signatures along with a domestic trusted list. Over the top of both sits ordinary contract law, which has never demanded any particular form for most agreements. The three layers agree, and none of them requires technology. It is worth separating two ideas that the Act itself keeps apart. Admissibility is about whether a court may look at the signature as evidence, which section 7 settles. Validity is about whether the document was properly executed, which comes from the general law of contracts and deeds. A signature can be admissible and the execution still defective, which is precisely what happens when a deed is signed without a witness.

What the Law Commission settled in 2019

The Law Commission of England and Wales reported on the electronic execution of documents and concluded that an electronic signature is capable of executing a document, including a deed, provided the signatory intends to authenticate it and any formalities are satisfied. That report did not change the law, and it did not need to. Its value was to remove the doubt that had made conveyancers and finance teams insist on paper. It also flagged the practical problems that remained, particularly around witnessing, and recommended an industry working group rather than new legislation.

Deeds and the witness problem

A deed executed by an individual must be signed in the presence of a witness who then attests the signature. The Law Commission's view is that the witness must be physically present, and that a video call does not satisfy the current requirement for deeds generally. That is the single largest constraint on electronic execution in the United Kingdom, because it means the technology can carry the signature but not the observation. Practical workarounds involve having the witness in the room while the signer uses the device, then having the witness sign electronically immediately afterwards.

Company execution routes

Under the Companies Act a company can execute by two authorised signatories, being two directors or a director and the company secretary, or by one director whose signature is witnessed. Electronic signing is accepted for these routes, and the officers can sign separate copies. Where a document is signed by an agent under a power of attorney, check whether that power itself was validly granted, because a defect there is not cured by the signing method. Registered charges and other filings then have their own submission rules at Companies House.

Where the registry rules bite

HM Land Registry sets its own requirements for the documents it accepts, and those have changed several times, first allowing witnessed electronic signatures and later qualified electronic signatures for certain deeds. The lesson is procedural rather than legal: the question is not whether an electronic signature is valid but whether the receiving body will take it in the form you produced. The same applies to some lenders and insurers, whose internal policies are stricter than the law and are unlikely to change because you cite a statute.

What a signing service can and cannot supply

It can supply the mark, the identity evidence and the tamper detection: an emailed link, an optional access code of at least four characters or a six digit emailed code valid for ten minutes, an audit trail of eighteen event types chained with sha256, and a completed PDF certified with PAdES at DocMDP level one. It cannot supply a witness, because there is no witness role and no approver role. Where a deed needs attestation, the witness is added as an ordinary signer and their presence at the signing has to be arranged offline.

Questions people ask

Can a witness sign electronically after watching in person?

Yes. The requirement is that the witness observes the signature being made, not that they use ink. Having both people in the room, with the signer completing their fields and the witness signing immediately afterwards on the same or a linked device, is the arrangement most legal advisers accept.

Is a qualified electronic signature needed in the UK?

Not for ordinary contracts. It appears in a small set of registry and regulated processes, and occasionally as a counterparty requirement. Since the United Kingdom keeps its own trust list arrangements after leaving the European Union, check which regime the requiring party means before buying anything.

Do the rules differ in Scotland?

Scotland has its own law on the formal validity of documents, including the concept of self proving documents witnessed by one person. The general acceptance of electronic signatures holds, but the execution formalities and the terminology differ enough that Scottish documents should be checked against Scottish requirements.

Does an email signature block count as a signature?

Courts have accepted typed names and automatic footers as signatures where the sender intended to authenticate the message, including in cases about contracts for land. That is a finding about intention in the particular case rather than a rule you should build a process on.

What about documents governed by foreign law?

The governing law of the document decides the formalities, so a contract under New York law signed by a London office follows the American rules. Where parties are in different countries, agreeing the governing law and the signing method in the document itself avoids a second argument later.

Is a signature still valid if the company later disputes authority?

That is an authority question rather than a signature question. Third parties can often rely on statutory assumptions about a company's officers, but the safest practice is to record the signer's name and title in the signature block so the capacity they claimed is on the face of the document.

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 12 September 2026.