UK’s OfDIA considering supplemental DVS code for age assurance
The UK is considering setting a new, dedicated set of rules for age assurance as digital verification services expand to further use cases including alcohol sales. The dedicated rules could take the form of a supplementary code for digital age verification, the annual report from the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes says.
“As part of this, OfDIA is planning to explore options for enabling children to prove their age online in a safe and privacy preserving way. OfDIA will continue to support wider government work to enable the use of registered DVS for age verification and other high-value use cases in regulated sectors.”
OfDIA’s Annual Report 2026, published in mid-July, commits to more collaboration with technology providers certified under the Digital Verification Services (DVS) Trust Framework. The list of DVS providers is now up to 46 organizations.
The total digital identity sector in the UK, including e-signatures and other trust services, generated just over 2 billion pounds (roughly US$2.7 billion) in revenue in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, according to the report. OfDIA counts 275 firms in the UK providing these services.
UK lawyer and digital identity expert Richard Oliphant says in a LinkedIn post this broader definition of digital identity services reflects the limitations of OfDIA’s focus on DVS to the exclusion of the trust services governed by UK eIDAS.
“OfDIA’s policymaking must ensure that the promotion of DVS is complementary to, and not in conflict with, the UK eIDAS Regulations,” he says. “All the more so now that HM Land Registry has said its strategic aim is full adoption of qualified electronic signatures from QTSPs.”
Oliphant says the pending launch of the Information Gateway will be “the true measure of OfDIA’s effectiveness.”
OfDIA’s to-do list also includes issuing the “UK CertifID” trust mark, developing a machine-readable DVS register and bringing more certification assessment bodies (CABs) into the ecosystem.
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Article Topics
digital verification service (DVS) | DVS Trust Framework | OfDIA | Richard Oliphant | UK age verification | UK digital ID
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Discussions to date with OfDIA have framed a new supplementary scheme around achieving consistency for age-restricted purchases, with the upcoming changes to UK alcohol laws, energy drinks and the rising minimum age for cigarettes, where it makes sense to have one legally defined standard.
Extending that to online age assurance would need to extend OfDIA’s remit into Ofcom’s existing purview which, while OfDIA remains within a government department could be difficult for an independent regulator, but that is an organizational and legal question we can leave to the government/Parliament.
It would enable age inference and age estimation to be added to age verification within the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework, as these are pervasive methods already in use under the Online Safety Act, but revised scoring criteria would be needed to include probablistic methods.
The barriers to entry into that market would rise, as certification as a Digital Verification Service (DVS) is more expensive than ISO 27566-1/IEEE 2089.1 certification. We would seek to ensure the UK requirements align with the ISO, to avoid conflicts and duplication of effort (eg NY state would still require certification to the existing standards).