Dialogue between UK government, digital identity providers gets restart next week

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones will meet with UK digital identity providers next Tuesday, December 2 for a roundtable discussion on the government’s mandatory national digital ID plan.

Digital verification service (DVS) providers certified under the Digital ID Trust Framework (DIATF) are invited to the meeting, according to a LinkedIn post by Richard Oliphant. Parliament will debate the government digital ID plan the following Monday, December 8.

The Association of Digital Verification Professionals will be there, and says on LinkedIn it will work with techUK and the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) “to present a united industry voice.”

That voice will tell the Starmer government that its plan is too expensive and risks harming public trust, stymying innovation and excluding people.

A leaked OBR budget review estimates the overall cost at £1.8 billion (approximately US$2.4 billion), with  £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in capital expenses and £0.5 billion ($0.65 billion) in operating expenses.

The ADVP published its own estimate in September, using the cost of Australia’s digital ID system as a basis and pegging the total closer to £2 billion ($2.67 billion). That includes a £1.25 billion base cost, plus £756 in additional costs to bring in excluded and vulnerable populations, as set out in a briefing paper. The paper responded to one from the Tony Blair Institute that hailed digital ID as enabling dramatic improvements in the way the public interacts with the government for a wide range of services.

Oliphant suggests DVS providers challenge the government in the meeting on December 2 on its lack of public and cross-party support, whether it is intentionally sidelining or just accidentally undermining DIATF participants and when the promised alcohol purchasing use case will be implemented.

The government said in May that it plans to issue digital verifiable credentials as alternatives to physical ID documents, he points out. Those digital credentials would include digital driver’s licenses (or mobile driver’s licenses, mDLs) and passports, and be hosted in a digital identity wallet also produced by the government.

“We have been banging on the door, now we have been let in. Its time for all the parties to understand each other better and find a way forward together. With good will, everyone can win,” says ADVP Chair David Crack in an email to Biometric Update.

Article Topics

ADVP  |  AVPA  |  BritCard  |  digital ID  |  GOV.UK Wallet  |  Richard Oliphant  |  techUK  |  UK digital ID