Electronic Communications Act 2000

The Electronic Communications Act 2000 (c.7) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that:

• Regulates the provision of cryptographic services in the UK (ss.1-6); and
• Confirms the legal status of electronic signatures (ss.7-10).

The United Kingdom government (with Tony Blair as prime minister) had come to the conclusion that encryption, encryption services and electronic signatures would be important to e-commerce in the UK.

By 1999, however, only the security services still hankered after key escrow. So a "sunset clause" was put in the bill. The May 2000 Electronic Communications Act gave the Home Office the power to create a registration regime for encryption services. This was given a five-year period before it would automatically lapse.

The five years expired in May 2005 and the legislation granting such a power disappeared from the statute book.

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External links

UK Legislation

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