Recently we were informed that a licensing department in a certain local authority would not accept an email as a valid application for a license. The law governing electronic signatures is set out below and is defined in EU directive 1999/93/EC and the Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 318 The Electronic Signatures Regulations 2002.
If your email signature meets the required standard of the relevant law then you are quite entitled to apply for a Hackney carriage proprietor's license by email. Applying for other licenses electronically such as renewal of a driver license may require the completion of an online form.
The case of Cannock Chase v Alldritt is the legal precedent that states an application for a proprietors license can be submitted in the form of a letter and that there is no mandatory obligation for such a request to only be submitted on a pre prescribed form.
Anyone wishing to apply for a proprietors license by email should make sure that their request complies with the law on electronic signatures and quote the relevant legislation, including Cannock Chase v Alldritt.
It should be remembered that council officers might not be as clued up on the law as yourself so it will be up to you to point out the legal framework appertaining to electronic signatures. Applications by way of Electronic mail can in some cases be advantageous, especially if you are applying for licenses in multiple areas? lol
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A recent report on the status of electronic signatures.
EU citizens and businesses have been reluctant to make use of electronic signature tools, despite the creation of a Community framework to support their legal admissibility – and the European Commission fears the limited take-up is hindering e-commerce.
On Friday the European Commission published a progress report on a Directive of 1999 that created a Community framework for electronic signatures.
Signing an email message by typing your name is a form of electronic signature; but the focus of the Commission's concern is the low take-up of more secure signatures, notably digital signatures that use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) – a variety of signature described in the Directive as an 'advanced electronic signature'.
“I am not fully satisfied with the take-up of electronic signatures in Europe,” said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. “Much work still has to be done in particular to make signatures work across borders.”
Digital signatures – unlike simpler forms of electronic signature – apply a seal to an electronic document that allows the recipient to be certain of the identity of the sender and they can also confirm that the document has not been tampered with since it was signed.
The Commission saw that such signatures would be useful in encouraging trade in goods and services via the internet and in 1999 pushed through its Directive setting up a Community framework for electronic signatures. This has now been implemented in all the 25 Member States.
However, a progress report into the operation of the Directive has revealed that the market for advanced electronic signatures backed by 'qualified certificates' from so-called Certification Service Providers has been much slower to take off than expected.
The Commission says the reason appears to be largely economic. According to the report, “service providers have little incentive to develop multi-application electronic signature and prefer to offer solutions for their own services, for instance, solutions developed by the banking sector. This slows down the process of developing interoperable solutions.”
But the report is optimistic, explaining that the growing use of electronic ID cards is likely to drive demand in the future. An electronic ID card can be used both as an identification document and to provide online access to public services for citizens. In most cases, these ID cards will serve to identify the holder and authenticate the signature, as well as enabling the holder to sign.
The use of electronic signatures in e-government services, such as online income tax returns, and in electronic public procurement and ID management are also likely to be influential, according to the report.
The report concludes that the Directive has introduced legal certainty with respect to the general admissibility of electronic signatures and continues to provide, for the moment, a valid basis for electronic signatures in the internal market.
But the Commission is keen to further encourage the development of e-signatures services and applications.
It plans to encourage further standardisation work in order to promote the interoperability of e-signature systems within and across borders and the use of all kinds of technologies for qualified electronic signature in the single market.
It intends to hold a series of meetings with EU Member State experts and stakeholders to consider possible complementary measures, to address, where appropriate: any differences among national laws transposing the e-signatures Directive that could fragment the single market, any clarifications needed in specific articles of the e-signatures Directive and any technical and standardisation work needed to improve the cross-border interoperability of e-signature systems.
The Commission also plans to prepare a report on standards for electronic signatures in 2006 to see whether further regulatory measures by the EU could be required.
EU Commission Report.
http://europa.eu.int/information_societ ... ort_en.pdf
DIRECTIVE 1999/93/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures
http://europa.eu.int/information_societ ... res_en.pdf
Study on the legal and market aspects of electronic signatures.
http://europa.eu.int/information_societ ... report.pdf
Legislation Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 318 The Electronic Signatures Regulations 2002
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20020318.htm
Electronic communications act 2000 Chapter c.7.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000007.htm
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