UK government launches public consultation on digital ID
The UK government is asking the British public to have its say on plans for the introduction of a digital ID, as part of a bid to make public services easier to access.
In its announcement of the launch of the consultation on 10 March, the government said that a digital identity system would end citizens’ “reliance on multiple logins and paper documents to access the support they need” and save them “time and effort”.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, added that people “too often dread their interactions with public services. Endless telephone calls, complicated printed forms and having to tell your story multiple times to different parts of government”. He said that digital ID will allow people to log on and prove who they are to access public services “more quickly, easily and securely”.
In its announcement, the government offered examples of where legacy systems had led to outmoded processes and burdensome paper trails. Its Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, for instance, processes “45,000 letters a day”, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs uses “500 different paper forms”, and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is handling “100,000 phone calls a day”.
Jones said that the UK government needed to catch up with the online experience offered by supermarkets, banks and retailers, and countries like Estonia that have long offered digitised public services.
Alongside the consultation, the government said it would share images and videos of a working prototype of the system showing how people could log on to a single app and prove who they are.
It emphasised that what it described as “government by app” would be available to “those who want it”, while existing routes to accessing public services would stay in place for “those who prefer them”.
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‘People’s panel on digital ID’
In the consultation, public participants will be asked questions such as what age they think a person should be able to receive a digital ID, what information it would be useful for a digital ID to include, which government services they think such a system could improve, and which groups of people it risks excluding.
The government said it would also establish a ‘people’s panel on digital ID’, which will bring together citizens from across the country and from different backgrounds. Those selected will take part in “in-depth discussions” in which they will share “different views on the proposals and… agree ways to move forward”.
The push to implement digital ID is part of the government’s broader mission to modernise public sector technology infrastructure, save money, and provide a better experience for people and businesses.
In January, the government published its Roadmap for Modern Digital Government, which outlined the next steps in its plans for digital transformation and which included its digital ID ambition.
It was announced in September 2025 that a digital ID would be “mandatory” for the right to work in the UK but this element of the scheme was rolled back in January following backlash.
The government’s eight-week online consultation on digital ID will close on 5 May.
Read more: Digital identity dilemmas – and how governments are working to overcome them
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
