The UK government has refused to estimate the cost of its digital identity system, saying this depends on what it decides after a consultation exercise launched yesterday.
“At this stage of development, it is not possible to definitively estimate the cost to government from developing and running the digital ID system,” said the Cabinet Office on page 83 of the 91-page consultation document, adding that yet-to-be-taken policy decisions “will materially impact the costs involved.”
In September last year, prime minister Keir Starmer announced his plans for a new digital identity system that people would have to use when taking a new job by the end of the current Parliament. After opposition, including three million people signing a parliamentary petition against the scheme, he scrapped this compulsory element in January. The consultation says that instead, employers will have to carry out digital right-to-work checks, but may use passports or eVisas as well as digital identities.
The government plans that digital IDs will be available at no charge to anyone who wants one by the end of this Parliament, which must end no later than July 2029. Most people will store them as verifiable credentials on smartphones or tablets, although the government is looking at physical alternatives for those without devices including random number generators, QR codes, and smart ID cards. The system will build on the GOV.UK One Login system, which is already used to access more than 122 services.
Organizations will check an ID digitally as well as viewing a photo of the holder. They will get the minimum information needed, with retailers told whether someone wanting to buy alcohol is over 18, rather than seeing everything on a physical document.
Digital IDs will not include biological sex or gender, with the consultation saying these are not needed for access to most public services, and will probably not include addresses although the latter is up for discussion. They will hold full name, date of birth, nationality, a high-resolution facial image, a unique number, and in some cases other data such as whether the person has an authorized representative.
“Our baseline is to start with the fewest data points possible, enough to simply prove you are who you say you are and nothing more – but if more is needed to support the uses you and other members of the public want, like proving your address, that’s something we’ll explore,” chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones writes in the document’s foreword.
Jones appears to have picked up responsibility for digital identity following the resignation of Josh Simons earlier this month after investigations into his actions running a think tank. This is despite James Frith last week taking Simons’ place as the junior minister working for both the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The consultation says the government wants digital IDs to be useful, inclusive, and trusted, “something people will want to get, rather than something they must have.” The scheme is not compulsory, nor will it replace other government-issued documents, and the police will get no new powers to demand to see it.
“However, we expect it will, in time, reduce reliance on physical documents as people choose to apply for and use the digital ID,” the consultation document adds.
The consultation discusses uses including applying for benefits and pensions but not healthcare. Earlier this week, The Times reported that health secretary Wes Streeting refused to provide NHS data for the project with his department focusing on its existing app for the NHS in England.
It also said that education secretary Bridget Phillipson resisted integrating data on children’s special educational needs. This does not appear in the document, although the consultation does discuss whether the minimum age should be 16, 13, or even from birth.
Following the written consultation, which closes on May 5, the government will set up a “People’s Panel on Digital ID” by recruiting 100 to 120 people at random. The group will discuss the plans and develop recommendations, completing this work on June 21. The government will then respond to the consultation and publish legislation. ®