#12 Inside Labour: Why all the fuss about digital ID?
For this week’s newsletter, I’ve handed over the reins to Kirsty Innes, Director of Tech Policy at Labour Together, to talk you through the topic on everyone’s lips in Westminster: Digital ID.
The phrase “digital identity” has had a lot of airtime lately. Supporters claim that it can boost growth, improve public services, and even help tackle some of the most toxic political challenges facing the government, like illegal migration. Opponents worry it could open up the risk of mass surveillance and endanger peoples’ privacy.
Here’s why I think that building a secure, privacy-preserving digital identity system for the UK is not only possible but essential.
First off, we should make clear what we’re talking about
For me, a “digital identity” means a way for everyone to prove things about themselves securely, privately and remotely. This includes proving who they are to access services and data managed by the Government.
As it stands, government bodies already offer numerous identity credentials, both physical (like passports, birth certificates, and driving licences) and digital (like the Government Gateway ID used by HMRC amongst others, or the NHS Log-in system for the NHS App). In fact, a 2021 review found that there are over 190 different ways to log on to different government services.
To me, it makes perfect sense to simplify this and provide one clear way to identify yourself to many parts of Government.
The Government Digital Service’s One Login for Government aims to tackle this, with a single login for multiple parts of the government. This could help to save time for millions of people: according to the Blueprint for Digital Government, the average person spends a week and a half every year dealing with Government bureaucracy.
But, One Login is only part of the puzzle.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of introducing digital identity might come from being able to combine data to get better insights into how to design and refine public services. We should do this carefully and build robust mechanisms to improve transparency and consent for users. But the current arrangements, where sharing data across departments is a rare and burdensome thing, are letting us down.
It’s not a quick fix. But it’s not impossible, either
Introducing it would be a major digital infrastructure investment that will need a decent helping of political and financial capital. It’ll need clear backing from Number 10, the Treasury, and the Home Office (which owns identity policy), as well as the Department for Science Innovation and Technology, which is leading digital ID work. And it’ll need a fair amount of coordination - it’s the kind of cross-cutting project that is hard to deliver in Whitehall.
The Tony Blair Institute estimates that it could cost around £1 billion to set up and £100m per year to run. When you weigh this up against other infrastructure projects, this represents something of a bargain. What’s more, they also found that it could have a net saving to the taxpayer of £2 billion per year - we can’t afford to leave that on the table.
We have a thriving homegrown digital ID industry in the UK, which will be crucial to delivering all the functions I’ve described. And we have the talent in Government: during Covid, the NHS span up a Covid Pass that could be used by the whole country in a matter of months. When it needs to, the government can do hard things with tech.
Digital ID could be this government’s most iconic policy
The previous Conservative government never publicly admitted that it was building “digital identity”. In fact, it launched two completely separate ID systems: One Login for Government (developed by the Government Digital Service), and the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework, delivered by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Now these teams have been brought together as part of the new Digital Centre of Government under Peter Kyle, the hard work of building out Government capability, alongside a thriving marketplace for ID providers is well and truly underway. If they get the backing they need, this work programme could be one of the greatest achievements of this Labour administration: an invaluable tool that will drive growth and improve public services for decades to come.
Kirsty Innes
Director of Tech Policy, Labour Together
In case you missed it
Is the UK finally ready for ID cards? | One of the most complex, and divisive, issues in modern politics is making a return under this government; ID cards. To discuss those issues host Alain Tolhurst is joined by Jake Richards, Labour MP for Rother Valley, Kirsty Innes, director of technology at the think tank Labour Together, Rebecca Vincent, interim director at the campaign group Big Brother Watch, and James Baker, campaigns manager at the Open Rights Group.
