Whitehall shuts the front door on digital ID but leaves the back open

Britain's national digital ID scheme may be dead, but Whitehall appears to have forgotten to tell the infrastructure.

Despite the government scrapping its controversial plans , officials told MPs on Monday that work continues on GOV.UK One Login, digital wallets, and a growing collection of digital credentials designed to help people prove who they are.

The abandoned scheme was one of Keir Starmer's flagship policies, originally pitched as a compulsory digital ID card to crack down on illegal working.

Privacy campaigners weren't impressed, warning of surveillance and government overreach, and ministers eventually made it voluntary before Andy Burnham, decided to bin the whole thing.

But scrapping the scheme hasn't dented Whitehall's digital identity ambitions.

Officials told MPs this week that more than 80 types of documents are earmarked for the government's digital wallet, including proof of benefits, driving test certificates, and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates.

That's quite a lot of paperwork for something that's supposedly dead.

The revelations came during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Monday, where MPs wanted to know what exactly had been scrapped.

"But is it not the case, based on the answers you've given us this afternoon, that the infrastructure of digital ID in the public sector is still being pursued?" asked Sarah Green, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesham and Amersham.

Susannah Storey, DCMS permanent secretary, was keen to draw a line between the national scheme ministers had scrapped and the digital identity projects Whitehall had no intention of abandoning.

One Login already allows people to prove who they are online, she said, but "that is not the same as a national digital identity strategy." Rod Latham, DCMS director for cybersecurity and digital identity, had a convenient explanation for why so much of digital ID was still standing: the government had only scrapped plans for a new identity product.

"We already had One Login and the Gov Wallet," he told MPs, adding that work on the digital identity trust framework was also underway before the national scheme was announced.

Whitehall isn't wasting time putting that technology to use, with officials confirming that testing is already underway to enable digital credentials to work with private businesses.

Natalie Jones, the senior responsible owner for GOV.UK One Login, revealed that the government had opened a testing environment for private sector providers to integrate with its digital wallet technology.