As announced by Erika Lewis, at the Tech for People session, 11 February 2021.
It has become increasingly important in this digital age to be able to establish trust, particularly online. This is the foundation thriving markets are built on. Having an agreed digital identity that you can use easily and universally will be the cornerstone of future economies.
There are times in day-to-day life when you may be asked to prove something about yourself to access a service or product. When buying alcohol you may need to prove you are over 18. When opening a bank account you need to certify who you are and where you live. When starting a new job you need to clear pre-employment screening.
This might be easy if you have a passport or driving licence and you are able to offer these face to face. At other times it can be difficult. You may not have recognised physical documents or may not be able to travel to prove you are who you say you are. Physical documents can also be stolen, falsified or misplaced. They can be expensive to replace and their loss can lead to identity theft and fraud.
The UK government is committed to solving these problems digitally and without the need for a national identity card. In response to last year’s Digital Identity Call for Evidence, the UK government committed to:
- creating a clear framework of rules which show what ‘good’ digital identities look like — this will enable business to innovate, and help you to access products and services with ease, confident that there are standards in place to protect you from fraud and safeguard your privacy
- establishing a governance and oversight function to own these rules, keep them up to date, and make sure they are followed
- developing proposals to remove legislative and regulatory blockers to the use of secure digital identities and establish safeguards for citizens
This document, the first ‘working’ version of the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework, is an important step to meeting these commitments.
You can help us with this by reading this document and sending your feedback. Please provide your comments via the survey by 12pm on Thursday 11 March 2021.