HM Land Registry has responded to an open letter calling for amends to guidance on the use of qualified electronic signatures (QES), acknowledging there are barriers to adoption and explaining it is aiming for an increase in usage by the end of August.
In a statement shared with Today’s Conveyancer, HMLR said: “We believe that consumers deserve a fully digital and secure way to sign and execute deeds, similar to how they access thousands of other services, in a way that is quick, secure and convenient.
“HMLR has laid a clear marker for the industry by accepting QES which completely eliminates the need for paper and other less secure forms of signing. QES is the most secure form of electronic signature.
“QES usage is expected to increase as adoption of the technology grows. HMLR has been engaging with the market and supporting providers as they develop their QES capability. Lenders have already demonstrated strong public support for QES, and we anticipate usage rising from single figures in the first six months to more than 300 by the end of August 2026.
“Whilst we view full QES adoption as our strategic aim, we recognise that today there are barriers to full adoption including a lack of market providers and older working practices which still pervade. We are therefore open to exploring options, possibly for a limited time, that could enable quicker adoption without deviating from our strategic aims. ”
The open letter – signed by Signicat, Thirdfort, Namirial, Yoti and Digidentity amongst others and sent to HMLR, MHCLG, the Conveyancing Association and the Digital Property Market Steering Group – called for amendments to current guidance which restricts the adoption of QES as a mainstream method of e-signing.
According to current HMLR policy, all parties must sign the same electronic document with QES and execution in counterpart is therefore prohibited. This inability to combine signatures makes QES “impractical, particularly where one counterparty does not possess a biometric passport”, the open letter claims. It also calls for the extension of HMLR’s Safe Harbour Scheme to QES, on the grounds that the identity proofing “meets or exceeds” the Safe Harbour standard.
The coalition has been brought together by Richard Oliphant, former general counsel of Docusign and an expert in digital signature technology.
One Response
A few marginal actors in UK conveyancing still cling to the idea that digital execution is a sort of administrative shortcut rather than a solemn legal act with real human consequences. Meanwhile, the law‑tech lobby continues its long‑running quest to push professionalism out of the room, replacing seasoned judgment with dashboards and a promise that “the platform will handle it”.
And HM Land Registry now seems oddly fixated on boosting QES usage, as though the number of digital signatures were itself a measure of national progress. In the process, it has quietly ignored the criticality of there being an independent witnessing solicitor, apparently confident that cryptographic identity can do the job of assessing duress, coercion, and undue influence.
However, digital signatures that verify identity but ignore authority, intent, and capacity are not innovation but an invitation to fraud. They shift liability onto conveyancers, expose firms to high‑risk indemnity claims, and create a new frontier for digital coercion that no audit trail can meaningfully illuminate.
Until the Registry and the law‑tech sector confront the legal realities of what they are proposing, digital reform will remain what it currently is, an illusion built on the wrong problem.