The government’s consultation on digital ID marks a shift in tone and substance

The government has finally published its much-anticipated consultation on digital ID. ⁵² Cabinet Office, ‘Making public service work for you with your digital identity’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y… After public support fell rapidly ⁵³ Courea E, ‘‘Reverse Midas touch’: Starmer plan prompts collapse in support for digital IDs’, The Guardian, 1 October 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/01/keir-starmer-labour-collapse-public-support-digital-id-cards  following Sir Keir Starmer’s initial announcement – when the prime minister framed a requirement to produce digital ID as a way to “combat illegal working” ⁵⁴ Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and Starmer, Sir Keir, ‘New digital ID scheme to be rolled out across UK’, press release, GOV.UK, 26 September 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-scheme-to-be-rolled-out-across-uk – in September 2025, the government has tried to reframe its vision. The emphasis is now on making people’s lives easier and dropping the idea of making digital ID mandatory ⁵⁵ Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and Starmer, Sir Keir, ‘New Digital ID to make life easier for millions’, press release, GOV.UK, 23 October 2025, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-to-make-life-easier-for-millions ⁵⁶ Walker P and Crear C, ‘UK government rolls back key part of digital ID plans’, The Guardian,13 January 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/government-rolls-back-digital-identity-card-plans , with the government’s consultation setting out three principles underpinning digital ID: useful, inclusive, trusted. ⁵⁷ Cabinet Office, ‘Making public service work for you with your digital identity: Executive Summary’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y…

While there is still the ambition for digital right to work checks (including digital ID, eVisa, and a British/Irish passport) to be mandatory by the end of parliament ⁵⁸ Cabinet Office, ‘Making public services work for you with your digital identity: Chapter 3.4: Tackling illegal working’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y… , the consultation places its focus on “designing the new digital ID as something people will want to get”. ⁵⁹ Cabinet Office, ‘Making public service work for you with your digital identity: Executive Summary’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y…  The conversation has shifted towards creating something that could gain more public support.

The government is finally recognising the value of consultation 

Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, framed the consultation as launching a “national conversation” – and going further than “any other” that the government has done before.  ⁶⁰ https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-03-10/debates/3F57FDEF-F6B4-4BBA-B058-C360D5A9EA21/DigitalIDPublicConsultation  It will be a two-stage process, starting with the online consultation and then a ‘People’s Panel for Digital ID’, a deliberative exercise similar to a citizens’ assembly. The panel will consider the issues raised in the consultation and explore the trade-offs between them. Throughout the consultation, the government is also planning to “support local conversations and events” with roadshows, roundtables and resources for local communities.  

The consultation itself aims to kickstart this conversation, asking questions ranging from what information should be on the ID to whether the ID should have a minimum age for people to access it. It has also identified people who might struggle to access the digital ID, and though it has provided no firm answers, is trying to engage with the question of how to support them to do so. This approach speaks to the three principles guiding this policy – that it is useful, inclusive, trusted – and is a genuinely encouraging step from government as it seeks to design a robust policy alongside gaining the public’s trust.  

The vision for digital IDs is very different to the initial announcement

The consultation envisions “proactive, hassle-free services that are available at the point of need.” ⁶¹ Cabinet Office, ‘Making public services work for you with your digital identity: Ministerial foreword’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y…  It is also consulting on introducing a “universal unique identifier” ⁶² Cabinet Office, ‘Making public services work for you with your digital identity: Chapter 3.1: Information contained in the digital ID’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y… , only to be used in the public sector, to join up government services. In a video, Darren Jones demonstrated a prototype of the GOV.UK app and wrote that he wanted to make “government by app a reality”. ⁶³ Jones D, ‘Can you get your admin done faster than you can make a cup of tea?’, LinkedIn, 10 March 2026, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/darrenjonesmp_can-you-get-your-admin-done-faster-than-activity-7437158044334968832-7U65?utm_source=share&utm_medium=me…  This is a significantly expanded vision – and one whose total cost is as of yet undetermined. ⁶⁴ House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, ‘Oral evidence: New digital forms of ID’, HC 986, Q134 and Q135, 3 March 2026, https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/17260/pdf/

But some of the questions around how digital ID fits in with the pre-existing identity verification projects in government are not fully answered. The consultation explains that digital ID will be tied to GOV.UK OneLogin, which already provides users with a single login for government services – and carries out identity checking as part of the service. ⁶⁵ https://www.sign-in.service.gov.uk/about/checking-users-identities  It is also used to log in to the GOV.UK app. With no clear public demand for this new vision of services integrated into an app, the government needs to make sure that its expansive vision does not run ahead of providing clarity over its technical model.

Government needs to focus on convincing the public that digital IDs will be useful for them

The government has not yet won over the public to the concept of digital IDs – let alone to its new vision for them. Most people do not want to have to prove their identity to access public services ⁶⁶ Coldicutt R, ‘Digital Identity in the UK: 6. Use Cases for Digital ID’, Careful Industries, September 2024, https://www.careful.industries/digital-identity-in-the-uk/6-use-cases-for-digital-id#block-518e8403231d7271638c , while participants in a recent research project exploring digital ID saw limited need to use digital ID to access services they use relatively infrequently – and wondered whether it benefited government rather than them. ⁶⁷ Hippo Digital, ‘Qualitative insights concerning the UK Digital Identity scheme’, Hippo Digital, December 2025, https://hippodigital.co.uk/qualitative-insights-concerning-the-uk-digital-identity-scheme/

The consultation, when summarising impacts, suggests that unique identifiers would be useful for departments, who find it hard “to know when it is the same person accessing different services”. ⁶⁸ Cabinet Office, ‘Making public services work for you with your digital identity: Part 6: Wider summary of impacts’, GOV.UK, accessed 11 March 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-y…  Joining up services would make it easier in the government ‘back end’, but the public must be persuaded that digital ID will be useful enough that they would choose to use it – and why it will be more useful than the current method of simply logging into services as and when they need to use them.  

After the prime minister’s overhasty announcement and the ensuing public backlash, the government is now proposing something very different to the initial intent. To avoid repeating last September’s false start, the government needs the time required to build back the public trust on which this policy will succeed or fail.