
2014 No. 83
Electronic Communications
The Electronic Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2014
Made 25th March 2014
Laid before the Scottish Parliament 27th March 2014
Coming into force 11th May 2014
The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 9B(2)(c), 9C(2) and 9E(1)(d) of the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995 and all other powers enabling them to do so.
Citation, commencement and interpretation
1 

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Electronic Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2014 and come into force on 11th May 2014.
(2) In these Regulations—
 “the 1995 Act” means the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995;
 “the 2002 Regulations” means the Electronic Signatures Regulations 2002;
 “advanced electronic signature” means an advanced electronic signature as defined in regulation 2 of the 2002 Regulations; and
 “electronic document” has the meaning given in section 9A of the 1995 Act.
Requirements of formally valid electronic document
2 
For an electronic document required by section 1(2) of the 1995 Act to be valid the electronic signature of a granter incorporated into or logically associated with that document must be an advanced electronic signature.
Requirements of self-proving electronic document
3 
For an electronic document to be presumed authenticated by a granter under section 9C of the 1995 Act the electronic signature incorporated into or logically associated with that document must be—
(a) an advanced electronic signature; and
(b) certified by a qualified certificate as defined in regulation 2 of the 2002 Regulations.
Annexations to electronic documents
4 
For an annexation to an electronic document to be regarded as incorporated in that document it must be—
(a) referred to in the document;
(b) identified on its face as being the annexation referred to in the document; and
(c) annexed to the document before the electronic signature under regulation 2 is incorporated into or logically associated with the document and the annexation.
FERGUS EWING
Authorised to sign by the Scottish Ministers
St Andrew’s House,
Edinburgh
25th March 2014