No digital ID checks until you change jobs, says No 10

The federal government says its controversial digital ID scheme is not going to be utilized retrospectively, with UK staff solely needing it after they apply for a job after its proposed introduction by 2028.

Announcing the plans in September, Sir Keir Starmer stated they had been a way to cease folks “slipping into the shadow financial system.”

It is now confirmed the scheme will solely be necessary for jobs entered into as soon as it goes reside, which ministers say will occur by the tip of the parliament.

Chatting with BBC Information in regards to the broader goals of the plans, Sir Keir pressured digital ID wouldn’t be obligatory and individuals who select to not have it will not be denied entry to important providers equivalent to healthcare.

“You may by no means want ID to enter a hospital or something like that,” he stated.

“For individuals who merely don’t need it, properly, they do not want it – other than the best to work.”

It isn’t clear the thought shall be welcomed by the general public nonetheless. A petition calling for it to be scrapped has attracted practically three million signatures.

In his BBC interview, Sir Keir set out what he stated can be some great benefits of digital ID, which shall be obtainable to all UK residents and authorized residents.

He stated it will goal to make folks’s lives simpler by “chopping the faff” concerned in offering a number of examples of identification for duties equivalent to making use of to school, shopping for a home or renting.

All of those can typically contain having to pay third-party providers for official verification.

Chris Norris, head of coverage on the Nationwide Residential Landlords Affiliation, instructed the BBC it will welcome something that makes it simpler to confirm people who need to hire.

“The place it could show helpful is in standardising the kind of ID obtainable,” he stated.

The PM additionally instructed the BBC, digital ID might scale back banking fraud as a result of it will make it tougher for criminals to entry personal accounts utilizing cast or stolen bodily paperwork.

There shall be a public session about it in late 2025, however there has already been important public opposition – alongside some confusion about what it truly is.

“Public opinion is basically cut up,” stated know-how specialist Rachel Coldicutt.

“There is a group who will welcome this, who use the pockets app on their telephone daily and need that seamless service, one other group who overtly do not welcome it – and one other group muddling by way of who don’t need any extra admin.”

She stated there was a “pretty thriving” market within the UK for unbiased digital ID suppliers, which she referred to as “a neighborhood home-grown business”.

“If the federal government expands its digital ID providing, it might kill off a development business,” she stated.

The prime minister’s intervention seems to have completed little to win over these with privateness issues.

“Keir Starmer has already misplaced the general public’s belief on digital IDs,” stated Silkie Carlo, head of civil liberties marketing campaign group Large Brother Watch.

“The one approach to safeguard the general public’s privateness and proper to decide on is to reject plans for a compulsory digital ID, as thousands and thousands of individuals have petitioned the Prime Minister to do.”

However the PM denied it will ever be used as a surveillance device – and stated the non-public knowledge which must be concerned in creating it will “completely have very sturdy encryption”.

It will additionally exist in your machine reasonably than being saved in knowledge centre computer systems, for added safety.

Whereas making it non-mandatory might handle a number of the criticism round digital inclusion and people with out entry to smartphones, it could additionally make it a much less highly effective device in consequence.

Digital ID is already in use in lots of nations around the globe together with India, Denmark and Singapore.

China has launched a voluntary system this yr however there are fears about its doubtless use by the police to trace on-line exercise. One of many first nations to undertake e-citizenship was Estonia in 2002.

Sir Keir didn’t increase on who would possibly function the UK digital ID scheme and whether or not it was prone to be a US tech big.

It has emerged at present that it’s going to now be overseen by the Cupboard Workplace, reasonably than the Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise, which is answerable for different authorities digital providers.