7B Electronic time stamps and related certificates

(1) In any legal proceedings—

(a) an electronic time stamp incorporated into or logically associated with a particular electronic communication or particular electronic data, and

(b) the certification by any person of such a time stamp,

shall each be admissible in evidence in relation to any question as whether the communication or data existed at the time the electronic time stamp was incorporated into or logically associated with such communication or data.

(2) For the purposes of this section an electronic time stamp is so much of anything in electronic form as—

(a) is incorporated into or otherwise logically associated with any electronic communication or electronic data; and

(b) purports to bind electronic communication or electronic data to a particular time establishing evidence that such data existed at that time.

(3) For the purposes of this section an electronic time stamp incorporated into or associated with a particular electronic communication or particular electronic data is certified by any person if that person (whether before or after the making of the communication) has made a statement confirming that—

(a) the time stamp,

(b) a means of producing, communicating or verifying the time stamp, or

(c) a procedure applied to the time stamp,

is (either alone or in combination with other factors) a valid means of establishing whether the communication or data existed at a particular point in time.