2. UK Government Policies

The Labour government has not yet published a comprehensive digital ID strategy but, at the time of writing, there are three major policy initiatives related to digital ID in play:

Diagram showing One Login, DVS, eVisa, the government departments responsible, the UK/Non UK residents affected, and public/private sector split

Fig 3: Three major UK digital identity policy initiatives

  • GOV.UK One Login is a single sign-on for all government services that require identity verification. Delivery is due to complete in March 2025. While not compulsory, One Login will become the default for people accessing digital public services: under the previous government, politicians responsible for the Government Digital Service (GDS) and HM Treasury stated [4] that department digital services should adopt One Login and GDS are committed to “mak[ing] sure as many people as possible can easily prove their identity to access government services.” [5]

  • Digital Verification Services (DVS) are third-party identity services, delivered by private sector companies “to help with things like moving house, pre-employment checks, and buying age restricted goods and services”. [6] The intention to give statutory footing to DVS in the new Digital Information and Smart Data Bill was announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024.

  • eVisa is an initiative to bring together existing physical and digital permits into a single scheme and platform. It is part of the Future Border and Immigration System (FBIS) Programme. eVisa will apply to all people who are not British or Irish citizens and do not hold British or Irish passports. It is currently being rolled out with a goal of phasing out Biometric Residence Permits by the end of 2024.

Together these programmes provide fairly comprehensive coverage of digital daily life. One Login covers public services in the UK; Digital Verification Services cover interactions
with the private sector (potentially online and in real life);
and eVisas are part of a broader programme to make borders “digital by default” by 2025.

These are also substantial investments and a significant amount of money has already been invested in these programmes. The overall public investment in digital identity is conservatively estimated at £700m.

These schemes (particularly DVS) also represent new layers of “digitisation by default” on everyday life, and collectively shift the role of the smartphone so that it becomes a tool to prove our identity. The roll-out is likely to lead to people needing to download new apps to complete different tasks and enjoy everyday experiences. While this will be more convenient for some people, it will risk creating new forms of exclusion for people who do not want to use digital identity or the millions of people who are digitally excluded. [7] Particularly those who experience exclusion because of affordability or due to low levels of digital literacy. As such, it is worth considering their collective and overlapping impacts.

2.1 Data sharing and data governance 

These services will generate a significant amount of new data about people. While it seems unlikely that all three programmes are intended to be completely interoperable, it is also likely that, for personal convenience, some people (particularly eVisa users) will opt to share data and identities between services, to avoid having to regularly access multiple identity services and providers.

2.1.1 One Login

Fig 2. One Login

Of the three programmes, One Login has the strongest data governance practices in place.

  • While there is no formal ethics board, the One Login Inclusion and Privacy Advisory Group (OLIPAG) is run by GDS to engage civil society in the detail of the work. Membership includes rights organisations, consumer organisations, academics, and businesses.  

  • As a result One Login has already committed to data minimisation and to the Identity Assurance Principles for Identity Services in Government. 

  • Data created by One Login is visible to and controlled by a GDS platform. We could find no detailed information about this data, but expect it to include account data (such as a unique ID, email address, password) and metadata (e.g. detail about when they accessed the services) related to a person. GDS say that they will gain consent before sharing One Login data with other public sector organisations whether “for convenience” or “to meet our lawful obligations to prevent identity fraud”.

2.1.2 Digital Verification Services

Diagramme: Data transfers between an individual, a DVS Provider and a relying party, as money transfers from individual to relying party, in return for goods and services

Fig. 4: Digital Verification Services.

Private-sector DVS providers will work with a host of “relying parties”. These relying parties will include cinemas, retailers, and online service providers. For instance, the Odeon cinema chain (a relying party), has an arrangement with Yoti (a DVS provider) to allow people to prove their age at the cinema. It seems plausible that age verification could also be offered as an additional feature on supermarket loyalty cards to ease bottlenecks in supermarket self-checkouts.

What is currently known about DVS data collection and governance:

  • Data is collected by DVS providers and relying parties; the government does not have access to this data other than through these organisations (for example by using legal powers to compel access) or by buying data from organisations like Experian that sell it.

  • Through the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, the government plans to put in place a provision to create an Information Gateway to allow registered DVS providers to check government-held information such as passports.

  • Identity can be checked to different levels of confidence as described in the Good Practice Guide 45 (GPG45) so that an identity check for opening a bank account will be stronger than an identity check to verify that someone is old enough to watch a 15-rated movie.

2.1.3 eVisa

Diagramme: data flows between an individual, the view/prove your immigration status service, provision of a share code, and the individual providing a share code to Landlord, Employer etc.

Fig. 5: eVisa

  • People with an eVisa can generate a share code to prove their immigration status and associated rights, such as the right to work and the right to rent, using the view and prove your immigration status service. Currently this share code can be given to third parties such as employers and landlords.

  • No further data sharing principles or governance information for the eVisa scheme were available for review.

2.2 What are the benefits of digital ID? 

The dominant lens through which benefits are currently assessed is economic. This is in line with the government’s assertion that DSIT is now an “economic department” with a mandate to:

Accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, ensure that new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK and drive forward a modern digital government for the benefit of its citizens. [8]

Overall, the estimate “cashable benefits” of government expenditure on these programmes largely derive from efficiency measures and fraud prevention. Details on how these figures have been calculated, and the precise role that digital ID will play in reducing fraud in different contexts, are not available.

Fraud is itself a complex social, technical and legal challenge that requires different approaches in different contexts. Without more transparency about the specific use cases where digital ID can help reduce fraud and the plans to make that happen, it is difficult to assess these claimed benefits.

Specifically, One Login is estimated to lead to “cashable savings” of £1.75bn, specifically “reducing identity verification and authentication costs; reducing total cost of online user support whilst reducing total user support; and, reducing public sector fraud.” [9]

Speaking to The Times about One Login, DSIT Secretary of State Peter Kyle has also indicated that One Login can be viewed as a productivity lever, saying,

At the moment, there are 160 different services with different logins. People are constantly losing their passwords and not remembering what they’ve done when. It’s a nightmare. Average Britons are spending almost a week and a half every year on government bureaucracy. [10]

Meanwhile, TechUK, on behalf of a group of industry actors, estimates that Digital Verification Services might provide an additional £800m to the economy. In an open letter written before the election, they asserted that a lack of a “trust framework” was a major impediment for growth:

The digital economy has already proven to be an important lever of growth and innovation for a modern economy such as the UK. However, its continued development is impeded by the difficulty of transacting with trust and by the growth in fraud, money laundering and misinformation through digital channels. [11]

The inclusion of misinformation in this list implies this calculation might also include “real name policies” and strong levels of verification and identity management for people using social media. This would exceed the current terms of the Online Safety Act.

The consultancy firm McKinsey have previously estimated that digital ID could “unlock” between 0.5% and 3% of GDP in 2030. [12]

None of these estimates include any calculation as to the possible impact of digital ID on social cohesion, the changes they are likely to make to people’s day-to-day life, or secondary effects such as the increased use of digital identity information by the police and security services. To gain some understanding of this, it is worth layering public opinion onto the proposed economic benefit.

2.3 Outline of Policy Programmes

Programme Name Function Estimated Set-Up Costs Roll-out and maintenance costs Financial Savings or Benefits Current/Future User Base
GOV.UK One LogIn

A single sign-on service for all government services that require identity verification, delivered by DSIT

£305m spread over four years to March 2025

Not available

£1.75bn

“The cashable savings … include reducing identity verification and authentication costs; reducing total cost of online user support whilst reducing total user support; and, reducing public sector fraud.”

Current: 1.51m citizens at August 2023,[13]

Future: anticipated to be rolled out to all users of GOV.UK services that require ID verification
Online Immigration Status (eVisa) eVisa is a Home Office initiative to bring together existing physical and digital permits into a single scheme and platform. It is part of the Future Border and Immigration System (FBIS) Programme.[14]

No specific business case for eVisa could be found but the wider FBIS programme reports £937m of implementation costs over the life of the whole FBIS. programme.

It is not clear how large a role eVisa plays in those figures.

We have assumed that eVisa amounts for 25% of these costs to reach a figure of £235m

 Ongoing running costs of £3,037m (2021/22 to 2030/31)

Government says that “Key cashable benefits include:

  • Income due to new routes and Electronic Travel Authority (ETA);
  • Reduction in use of Biometric Resident Permits (BRP) and vignettes;
  • Commercial cost savings; and
  • Operational efficiencies.”

“eVisas are a key part of delivering a border and immigration system which will be ‘digital by default’ by 2025.”[15]

Digital Verification Services (DVS)

Delivered by the private sector, these are “secure and trusted digital identity products and services from certified providers to help with things like moving house, pre-employment checks, and buying age restricted goods and services”.[16]

More information on this is expected in the planned Digital Information and Smart Data (DISD) Bill.

£138.5m over 10 years and £10m to run a central identity regulation and coordination function over 10 years (this seems low, as would equate to £1m running cost/year)

Costs to business are estimated to be £1bn over 10 years.[17]

Benefits are estimated to peak at £613m/year 7 years after legislation has passed. se.

The benefits are calculated on 4 use cases, digitising the right to work checks process, digital [professional] qualifications checks, and DBS checks.

The benefits are spread across individuals (time savings) and businesses (eg more efficient processes, reduced fraud).

[5] Rachel Tsand and John Holben, “The new in-person identity check for GOV.UK One Login”, GOV.UK (30 August 2023)

[6] “The King’s Speech 2024”, The Prime Ministers Office (July 2024), p. 39

[9] Sam Trendall, “One Login expected to cost £305m – and deliver £1.75bn benefits”, Civil Service World (August 2023), https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/one-login-expected-to-cost-305m-and-deliver-175bn-benefits

[10] Rachel Sylvester, “Labour’s Peter Kyle: the cabinet minister with a reading age of 8”, The Times (7 August 2024).

[11] “Open Letter to political parties: Recommit to moving forward with Digital Verification in the UK”, TechUK (July 2024), https://www.techuk.org/resource/open-letter-to-political-parties-recommit-to-moving-forward-with-digital-verification-in-the-uk.html

[12] McKinsey, “Digital Identification: A Key to Inclusive Growth” (April 2019) https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-identification-a-key-to-inclusive-growth

[13] Sam Trendall, “One Login expected to cost £305m – and deliver £1.75bn benefits”, Civil Service World (August 2023), https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/one-login-expected-to-cost–305m-and-deliver–175bn-benefits

[14] Some information on the FBIS Digitise programme at “Transparency data Future Borders and Immigration System (FBIS) (Digitise) programme: SRO appointment letter, May 2022 (accessible)”, GOV.UK, updated 11 July 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-major-projects-appointment-letters-for-senior-responsible-owners/future-borders-and-immigration-system-fbis-digitise-programme-sro-appointment-letter-may-2022-accessible

[15] “Media factsheet: eVisas”, GOV.UK (17 April 2024), https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/17/media-factsheet-evisas/