Legal admissibility


We are often asked whether the creation of electronic versions of documents and the subsequent disposal of the originals provides sufficient compliance with current legislation when provision of documents to official bodies or as part of legal proceedings is necessary.

In almost every instance scanned electronic documents are deemed acceptable by bodies such as HM Revenue & Customs or when submitted as legal evidence as long as it can be demonstrated that due care and diligence has been taken with their creation, storage and cataloguing.

British Standards (BIP 0008:2008), the Data Protection Act of 1998, and the current Law Society guidelines lay out clear guiding principles for electronic document management methodologies and our clients can be assured that Paper Escape fully comply with all current best practice and provide a clear audit chain which details the process from the collection to the destruction of a file.

The Law Society recommends that where a document is converted electronically and the original destroyed, written evidence of the destruction must be preserved. Paper Escape provide all customers with a certificate of destruction detailing the relevant files and documents involved in the electronic conversion and subsequent disposal of the original.

The benefits of our solution become instantly apparent when considering the duration of the legal and regulatory obligations to retain documentation. HM Revenue & Customs currently demand key records of businesses must be retained for at least 6 years whilst the NHS specify the health records of research subjects must be retained for at least 30 years!

“If a document is admissible in evidence, then an electronic image of that document may be treated as secondary evidence in the same manner as a photocopy or a microfiche image”
COMPANIES HOUSE