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

• Had provisions to regulate 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 had come to the conclusion that encryption, encryption services and electronic signatures would be important to e-commerce in the UK.^[1]

By 1999, however, only the security services still hankered after key escrow.^{[citation needed]} So a "sunset clause" was put in the bill. The Electronic Communications Act 2000 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, which eventually happened in May 2006.

References

External links

• An account from the Foundation For Information Policy Research Archived 6 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• Text of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.