UK unveils departmental data sharing consultation for One Login digital ID

The UK Cabinet Office has launched a new consultation on departmental data sharing to enable access to online government services with digital ID.

The proposal looks at amending existing legislation to facilitate citizens’ proving and reusing their identity when using the new One Login digital ID infrastructure.

“To help realize this ambition, the Cabinet Office is proposing a new regulation under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) 2017 to strengthen the ability for departments to share necessary information to support identity verification and reuse,” wrote the Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service (GDS).

In particular, the proposed legislation proposes a new objective under the DEA to enable the data sharing by authorities included in Schedule 4 of the act, and to add four new bodies to the schedule. These are the Cabinet Office, the Department for Transport, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

The proposal would also enable citizens to use several government-held datasets to verify their identity online rather than relying on traditional IDs, which the government believes many citizens do not have access to.

“The government is committed to realizing the benefits of digital identity technologies without creating ID cards,” writes Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office Alex Burghart MP in the document’s foreword.

“Additionally, it will save taxpayers’ money by preventing duplicate identity checks being carried out across government, supporting efficient service delivery through joined-up working and enabling more users to access online services,” reads a blog post on the UK government website.

The Cabinet Office is inviting the public to review and respond to the consultation, which is available at this link, alongside the public responses. It opened on Wednesday (4th January) and will run for eight weeks.

One Login will replace more than 190 existing sign-in routes and 44 separate accounts. The program has recently come under scrutiny by senior officials from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who have called for verification and authentication challenges to be addressed before fully deploying the system.

Article Topics

data sharing  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  One Login  |  reusable digital ID  |  UK