How DSIT is enabling the use of trustworthy digital identity services in the UK

Guest blog from Hannah Rutter, Deputy Director of Digital Identity at DSIT as part of our #UnlockingDigitalID week 2024.

The Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is enabling the widespread use of trusted digital identity services across the UK economy. This will bring efficiency savings to businesses, increase security and make people’s lives easier. In this guest article, I’ll explain the work we’re doing and what comes next.

The benefits of digital identity

While techUK members have been among those championing the benefits of digital identity services, they’re worth reiterating. People and businesses across the economy need quick, safe and affordable ways to check or prove identity and eligibility in everyday transactions. For example, it’s an essential part of accessing some age restricted goods or services, opening a bank account, starting a new job, or even collecting a parcel from the Post Office. Trustworthy digital identity services will help people do these things and more without the friction, cost and fraud risk of presenting physical documents.

Digital identity products also give users far more control over their own data. If someone chooses to, they’ll be able to re-use a digital identity across the economy, sharing only what is needed, when it is needed.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Digital identity services have the potential to boost the UK’s economic growth, and we estimate that a fully functioning digital identity market could create net economic benefits of between £1.07 billion and £5.56 billion over the next 10 years.

DSIT’s work to build trust in digital identity services

To realise these benefits, people need to feel comfortable using this technology. There needs to be trust that the services they use are reliable, secure and privacy preserving. That is why my team is working to establish a framework of standards, governance, and legislation; so that people and businesses know which digital identity services they can safely rely on.  

At the core of our work, we have created a set of rules that define what a good digital identity service looks like, called “the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework”. We have already published three successive versions of the trust framework and we’re hard at work on the next iteration, making sure that standards keep up with changes in technology.

Alongside the trust framework, we’ve worked with the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) to develop an officially recognised certification process. This allows digital identity services to be independently assessed against the rules set out in the trust framework. Around 50 digital identity services have already successfully gone through this process, so they appear on our list of certified providers on gov.uk.

These service providers are already spreading the benefits of digital identity products. For instance, they underpin hundreds of thousands of digital right to work and right to rent checks every month, saving businesses and landlords money and hassle, while offering a simple and secure service to employees and renters.

Next steps

Excitingly, legislation to put our system on a statutory footing is now imminent – as trailed in the King’s Speech. While full details will have to wait until the text of the data bill is introduced, I can say that it will:

give legal standing to the trust framework as a set of rules for a ‘good’ digital verification services across the economy, with supplementary rules where needed,

support the creation of the new GOV.UK register of services which meet our standards,

allow for services on the register to be issued with a trust mark, making it easy to identify the trustworthy services, and

lay the foundations of a new information gateway, which will in time allow for public authority data to be shared with registered providers for the purposes of identity and eligibility checking.

DSIT will also play a key role in enabling the market and will continue the work with regulators and other government departments to identify and remove barriers to the use of digital identity services.

We’re going into an incredibly exciting and important time for the development of the digital identity market in the UK. To stay up to date on our work you can view our GOV.UK page here.

Welcome to techUK’s 2024 Digital ID Campaign Week! On the 14-18^th Oct, we are excited to explore how our members are increasing efficiency for both businesses and users, combatting fraud, as well as what creative and innovative ways our members are expanding our understanding of Digital Identities.

Whether it’s how we’re communicating, shopping, managing our finances, dating, accessing healthcare or public services, the ability to verify identity has quickly become a critical vanguard to the Digital Economy.