All my bikes are insured with Adrian Flux and they email the Insurance Certificate which is accepted by the post office for tax purposes.
I will check with Lurkalot but I'm pretty sure we had to have the ORIGINAL for GWs.
Sorry if I confused things.
When I said about a printout I was being a bit tongue in cheek because we posted a FAKE that we don't think GWs would be able to spot in case the original from the insurer did not arrive on time.
(It's was real insurance but not the orignial copy).
Luckily the original had arrived in the post, so the fake was not required.
The issue is not with the PO insiting on original but with GWs (or was in Sept 2009 in the Honda section).
I don't know if anythign has chnaged so check for yourself.
I am not complaining BTW - if it's the law/guidelines then it's not GWs fault. Just warning people to check up front.