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

The federal government says its controversial digital ID scheme won’t be utilized retrospectively, with UK employees 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 obligatory for jobs entered into as soon as it goes reside, which ministers say will occur by the top of the parliament.

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

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

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

It is not clear the concept shall 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 can be the benefits of digital ID, which shall be out there to all UK residents and authorized residents.

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

All of those can typically contain having to pay third-party companies 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 wish to hire.

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

The PM additionally instructed the BBC, digital ID may cut back banking fraud as a result of it will make it tougher for criminals to entry non-public accounts utilizing solid or stolen bodily paperwork.

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

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

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

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

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,” mentioned Silkie Carlo, head of civil liberties marketing campaign group Huge 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 will ever be used as a surveillance instrument – and mentioned the non-public knowledge which must be concerned in creating it will “completely have very sturdy encryption”.

It might additionally exist in your system fairly than being saved in knowledge centre computer systems, for added 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 because of this.

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 12 months however there are fears about its possible 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 more likely to be a US tech big.

It has emerged in the present day that it’s going to now be overseen by the Cupboard Workplace, fairly than the Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise, which is accountable for different authorities digital companies.