Documents are increasingly being created and used in electronic form. Trade documents with legal import are no exception. The UK Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 defines what such a document is, and requires it be produced by a “reliable system”.

But “reliable system” is a concept of engineering, and has been for decades (I have a textbook on “Reliability Engineering” by Alessandro Birolini that has been in print in various editions for over 30 years).

Are the two concepts the same? No, they are not. Here is a suggestion to manage the differences.