Whitehall shuts the front door on digital ID but leaves the back open

Britain's national digital ID scheme may be dead, but Whitehall appears to have forgotten to tell the infrastructure.

Despite the government scrapping its controversial plans, officials told MPs on Monday that work continues on GOV.UK One Login, digital wallets, and a growing collection of digital credentials designed to help people prove who they are.

The abandoned scheme was one of Keir Starmer's flagship policies, originally pitched as a compulsory digital ID card to crack down on illegal working. Privacy campaigners weren't impressed, warning of surveillance and government overreach, and ministers eventually made it voluntary before Andy Burnham, decided to bin the whole thing.

But scrapping the scheme hasn't dented Whitehall's digital identity ambitions. Officials told MPs this week that more than 80 types of documents are earmarked for the government's digital wallet, including proof of benefits, driving test certificates, and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates. That's quite a lot of paperwork for something that's supposedly dead.

The revelations came during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Monday, where MPs wanted to know what exactly had been scrapped.

"But is it not the case, based on the answers you've given us this afternoon, that the infrastructure of digital ID in the public sector is still being pursued?" asked Sarah Green, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesham and Amersham.

Susannah Storey, DCMS permanent secretary, was keen to draw a line between the national scheme ministers had scrapped and the digital identity projects Whitehall had no intention of abandoning. One Login already allows people to prove who they are online, she said, but "that is not the same as a national digital identity strategy."

Rod Latham, DCMS director for cybersecurity and digital identity, had a convenient explanation for why so much of digital ID was still standing: the government had only scrapped plans for a new identity product.

"We already had One Login and the Gov Wallet," he told MPs, adding that work on the digital identity trust framework was also underway before the national scheme was announced.

Whitehall isn't wasting time putting that technology to use, with officials confirming that testing is already underway to enable digital credentials to work with private businesses.

Natalie Jones, the senior responsible owner for GOV.UK One Login, revealed that the government had opened a testing environment for private sector providers to integrate with its digital wallet technology. This would let people use digital driving licenses to prove their age in pubs, collect parcels, or verify their identity online.

"We've got a bit of a chicken and egg situation. A digital driving license is only useful if there are people ready and shops and businesses ready to receive it,” Jones said, noting that further testing is planned for December, with a national rollout of digital driving licenses targeted for 2027.

MPs also pressed officials on privacy, particularly whether citizens would have to consent before their information was shared between government departments.

"In the confines of digital ID used in digital services, then consent is the model," said Christine Bellamy, interim director general for digital products at the Government Digital Service.

There's a catch, of course. Government departments can already share data without asking permission, and officials couldn't quite explain how that squares with their promises about consent.

"The strategy needs to be fully finished," Bellamy admitted, which might not be the reassurance MPs were hoping for.

Jones insisted that One Login was "not a big data lake," saying it stores identity information separately and cannot see what users do inside government services. "One Login does not issue a single identifier to people," she added.

Rupert Lowe MP remained unconvinced, warning that Britain could end up getting digital ID "by the back door rather than the front door."

Officials maintained that the canceled national scheme was fundamentally different from the services still being developed, and that people would retain alternatives to digital identification.

National digital ID may be officially dead, but between One Login, digital wallets, and dozens of planned credentials, Whitehall still has plenty of identity-related work to keep it busy. ®