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 once they apply for a job after its proposed introduction by 2028.

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

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

Talking to BBC Information in regards to the broader goals of the plans, Sir Keir harassed digital ID wouldn’t be obligatory and individuals who select to not have it could not be denied entry to important providers corresponding to healthcare.

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

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

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

In his BBC interview, Sir Keir set out what he mentioned could be the benefits of digital ID, which will probably be obtainable to all UK residents and authorized residents.

He mentioned it could goal to make folks’s lives simpler by “reducing the faff” concerned in offering a number of examples of identification for duties corresponding to making use of to college, 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, informed the BBC it could welcome something that makes it simpler to confirm people who need to lease.

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

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

There will probably be a public session about it in late 2025, however there has already been vital public opposition – alongside some confusion about what it really is.

“Public opinion is basically break up,” mentioned expertise specialist Rachel Coldicutt.

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

She mentioned there was a “pretty thriving” market within the UK for unbiased digital ID suppliers, which she referred to as “an area home-grown trade”.

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

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

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

“The one strategy 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 could ever be used as a surveillance instrument – and mentioned the private knowledge which must be concerned in creating it could “completely have very sturdy encryption”.

It might additionally exist in your gadget quite than being saved in knowledge centre computer systems, for extra safety.

Whereas making it non-mandatory could 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 instrument consequently.

Digital ID is already in use in lots of international locations all over the world together with India, Denmark and Singapore.

China has launched a voluntary system this yr however there are fears about its possible use by the police to trace on-line exercise. One of many first international locations 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 large.

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