UK Post Office offers digital identity services on government marketplace

The UK Post Office has joined the Government Digital Framework’s GCloud11 marketplace to offer a suite of online and in-person identity services to make it easier for government agencies to procure them.

The three Post Office Identity Services available include digital identity to enable proof of identity and verified data and document sharing from a mobile device, in-branch verification for specific customers who require face to face identity verification, and document certification for original documents with additional digital image capture when required. Document certification can be provided for passports, driving licenses, utility bills and bank statements. The Post Office says the services collectively give government partners the flexibility of “bricks and clicks.” The institution has 11,500 outlets, and 93 percent of the population is within a mile of one a Post Office location.

Government partners including the DVLA, Her Majesty’s Passport Office, and the Cabinet Office already work with the Post Office’s Identity Services team, according to the announcement. The Post Office is also participating in a trial for passport check services for users of the government’s Verify service, and Government Digital Service (GDS) Director of Digital Identity Lisa Barrett noted the Post Office is already one of the country’s two largest identity providers, and is trialing ways to expand its identity services.

“We are delighted to be able to offer our services through GCloud 11. We are uniquely placed to serve customers who may be digital natives, while also supporting those who prefer to engage with our services face to face,” comments Post Office Managing Director of Identity Services Martin Edwards.

“We look forward to working with our government partners in the identity space. We share many common goals, including tackling issues such as digital and financial exclusion. By helping customers to prove who they are in an easy and inclusive manner, we believe we will remove barriers that impede access to key services such as Universal Credit, and passport applications.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cloud services  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  mobile identity credentialing  |  secure documents  |  secure transactions  |  UK