It is understandable that some councils may be concerned about the admissibility and legal validity of e-signatures and e-sealing and whether they are compatible with their constitution.

It is the Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 which enables contracts to be signed electronically and seals to be created by an electronic seal creation device.

The council’s constitution will contain the rules authorising officers to sign contracts to certain financial limits and requiring all others to be sealed.

If your constitution does not yet refer to the ability to sign electronically, then you will need to draft a report to the committee responsible for changes to the constitution seeking an amendment to the contract procedure rules to include signature being possible by electronic means.