The form is used to obtain medical information from GPs to support a protection insurance application.  It usually takes between eight and 12 days for a paper request to be returned; during the pilot last year 58% of E-AMRA consent forms were returned on the same day and 92% were returned within five days.

Royal London claims the introduction of e-signatures dramatically improves turnaround times, reduces dropout rates, reduces costs and saves advisers time, as returning paper documents can cause delays in getting plans on risk. It will also provide an audit trail and improved document security.

The ABI and BMA have approved the use of e-signatures and published a set of high level principles regarding their use which has been rolled out to GP surgeries.

Once the customer has received an encrypted email and password they email the provider permission to contact their GP. The GP will receive a copy of the E-AMRA consent form with the GPR request. There is no change to the process for what a GP surgery receives as a result of the introduction of e-signatures. The traditional paper process will remain an option and the consent form will be available to download online.

Debbie Kennedy, group head of protection strategy at Royal London, said: “We’re always looking at ways to speed up the application process for advisers and their clients.  That’s why we launched an e-signatures option for Access to Medical Reports Act (AMRA) consent form.

“Rather than sending customers a paper copy in the post we can now send an encrypted email asking for permission to contact their GP. Once we’ve received this we’ll send it securely to their GP. This service is now available to everyone following a successful pilot.”