Mobile driver’s licenses coming to the UK this year

The UK government is planning to issue digital driver’s licenses this year with legal backing to be accepted as proof of identity and age for voting, boarding domestic flights and making alcohol purchases.

The digital version of the license, known as mobile driver’s licenses, or mDLs, in the U.S., will be delivered through a Gov.uk app, The Times reports. It is not expected to be made available in either Google or Apple Wallet. The same app is also expected to store a digital version of the UK Veteran Card.

The app will have similar security features to banking apps, according to The Times, and make use of native device biometrics and multi-factor authentication.

Further details are expected to be revealed this week in a ministerial announcement.

The optional digital IDs will be delivered by the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to a digital wallet accessed through the new app. AVPA Executive Director Iain Corby says the government is rumored to be preparing to announce the launch of a One Login digital wallet app on Tuesday.

Successive UK governments have hinted at the possibility of an mDL launch, and the DVLA suggested last year that it was working towards a rollout in 2025.

The Data (Use and Access) Bill is currently before Parliament, and contains significant changes to the UK’s laws around identity verification and digital ID.

Roles of private, public-sector IDs yet to be defined

Reactions to the revelation have been mixed.

“This is long overdue from the UK DVLA and a very welcome announcement for digital identity in the UK,” Alan Goode, Goode Intelligence CEO and chief analyst, tells Biometric Update in an email. “We await precise details on how it will operate and supporting applications. We have seen other regions including Australia and the U.S. use the mDL as a primary identity for a range of applications outside of driving and I hope the UK can learn from them.”

Yoti Co-founder and CEO Robin Tombs says in his own LinkedIn post that the move is the UK government “clearly showing it’s very serious about digital Britain & reusable #digitalID.”

Richard Oliphant, a legal consultant focused on digital identity, electronic signatures and related topics, warns in a LinkedIn post that the announcement, while in some ways welcome, suggests the government has taken “a twin-track approach to digital ID.”

The One Login system, operated by Gov.uk, was introduced by the Government Digital Service (GDS) for single sign-on (SSO) access to government services, he notes. The introduction of other use cases, he says, blurs the line separating One Login from the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF), which is presented as serving private sector use cases.

“Now The Times claims that the ‘Booze Use Case’ will be met by the One Login superapp. And there is only one winner in that battle. Spoiler alert: David won’t slay Goliath,” he warns.

A robust debate follows in the comments underneath the post. There are also further expressions of concern about a lack of clarity for digital ID providers that have already gone through the DIATF certification scheme, only to find that the government-issued digital ID may address some of the market they were expecting to compete for.

The Age Verification Provider’s Association (AVPA) says, also on LinkedIn, that the mDL is likely to follow the ISO/IEC 18013 standard for age verification, with the reference image and photo of the user transmitted to the relying party for a face biometrics match.

The AVPA’s preferred approach, according to the post, is to have the biometric match performed on the user’s device to generate a QR code, which provides the age assurance without transmitting personal information.

Article Topics

age verification  |  AVPA  |  DIATF certification  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  DVLA  |  Goode Intelligence  |  identity verification  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  One Login  |  reusable digital ID  |  Richard Oliphant  |  UK