BSI Publishes Standard for Legal Admissibility and Evidential Weight of Electronic Information

First published: 31^st December 2008

The British Standards Institute has just published BS 10008, a couple of months late for September their target date. The standard aims to ensure that any electronic information required as evidence of a business transaction is afforded the maximum evidential weight. The areas covered include:

• The management of electronic information over long periods, including through technology changes, where information integrity is a vital business
• How to manage the various risks associated with electronic information
• How to demonstrate the authenticity of electronic information
• The management of quality issues related to document scanning processes.
• The provision of a full life history of an electronic object throughout its life.

Some commentators criticised the draft standard, published in May 2008, for failing to meet its' aim of applicability to all classes of digital object, saying that the focus is on documents, and, in some sections primarily digitised versions of paper documents.

Alan Shipman, Chairman of the BSI committee responsible for the development of BS 10008, said: “The new standard is an important step in ensuring the admissibility of evidence in the UK. It has been developed by a wide range of experts in the field of document management as a specification of good practice”.

The BSI's Code of Practice on the same topic (BIP 0008) will be updated in accordance with BS 10008. Implementation of the recommendations given in the latest edition of the CoP will assist with compliance of BS 10008.

Both BS 10008 and the CoP are referenced in the Section 46 of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000: Code of Practice on Records Management, so it is certain that this standard will have an effect on organisations handling digital evidence related to UK cases.