The UK has introduced a new digital trade act that updates older legislation from 1882 to allow digital , rather than paper based records from shipping .

A key aspect of the change states that the electronic document must be identifiable from copies and must be safe from unauthorised alterations and there has to be a reliable system in place to enforce that .

It is estimated the act could generate a net benefit of £ 1.14 billion for the British economy over the next decade for UK businesses trading across the world .