UK Parliament Legislates New Digital Identity Verification Services Bill

On Wednesday, in the King’s Speech, the UK government presented a new Digital Identity Verification Services Bill to standardize digital IDs.

The UK government has introduced a new bill for online identity verification services, a commitment to support digital ID products and services from certified authorities. The country’s Digital Transformation and Smart Bill is one of the 39 recently legislated initiatives introduced by the government on Wednesday in the King’s Speech. The event outlined significant plans for the recently elected Labor Government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

According to the newly passed Bill, online identity verification services will empower citizens to authenticate their identities or information to experience more transparent and frictionless online transactions, pre-employment checks, and buying age-gated services. For businesses, this legislation will lessen the burden by reducing the cost of meeting compliance, overcoming the risk of data breaches, and effectively onboarding customers.

At the same time, trade bodies and digital identity service providers have consulted with the government to structure DIATF’s legal role. According to the government, the country can experience an economic benefit of £600 million from passing this bill to secure citizens’ digital identities each year.

“Digital Verification Services will help people and businesses to make the most of identity-checking technologies with confidence and peace of mind,” the document states.

The Digital Information and Smart Bill (DISD) plans to introduce and enforce new reforms related to data-sharing standards while giving more power to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). In addition to these amendments, other goals include setting up smart data schemes and streamlining digital public services, making it frictionless for customers to share their data securely with authorized third-party providers (ATPs). However, the published document lacks details on how businesses can store or share customers’ data while eliminating the risk of exploitation.

Before this bill was introduced, there were many debates about the government’s initiative to introduce digital IDs. After Starmer considered using digital identity to restrict illegal migration, the labor government developed the idea of national ID cards.

However, the position of the digital certificate still needs to be clarified. Despite the new digital ID initiatives, the country’s lawmakers and experts argue that digital identities are inevitable at some point.

Like other countries, the UK is playing its role in making digital identity mainstream. Before legislating the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, the government emerged with a law called Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI), which, however, failed for multiple reasons and was grounded in May 2024. If DPDI had been a success, it would have had the power to eliminate the Biometric and Surveillance Camera Commissioner Role.

After the DPDI enforcement in February, the Department of Science and Innovation and Technology conducted a survey of public opinion on the bill and found out that the concerns related to identity fraud along with government overreach remain. The survey also revealed that the public is also concerned if digital identity services become mandatory over time; their personal data can be easily accessible by non-UK-baked companies, leading to privacy breaches.

However, Tracey Follows, CEO of Consultancy Futuremade, said that Starmer’s government is all set to establish close relations with the European Union. This step will help the country enhance its digital ID movement by inspiring it with the EU’s digital identity interoperability project.

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