UK citizens could soon be able to carry their passports in a digital wallet on their phones along with their driving licence, universal credit account and marriage and birth certificates.
The plan was announced by Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, as part of a new smartphone app to simplify interactions with government services. He said it meant “the overflowing drawer rammed with letters from the government and hours spent on hold to get a basic appointment will soon be consigned to history”.
The first government-issued credentials that people will be able to carry in the new digital wallet, to launch in June, will be a driving licence and a veteran card. The government’s digital service plans to then roll out access to accounts relating to student loans, vehicle tax, benefits, childcare and local councils.
Kyle said his department is working with the Home Office on allowing digital versions of passport. These would continue to exist alongside physical copies and the ability to use them to pass through foreign borders will be limited by other country’s border systems, officials said.
Kyle said: “We’re keeping a close eye on international standards. When those standards become clearer then, of course, you have the government that would aspire to be able to benefit from it as much as possible.”
The digital wallet – which would be similar to the wallets on Apple and Google devices – would be tied to an individual ID and will be sufficient to prove a person’s status, officials said. For example, a new football coach for a community team will be able to instantly share their disclosure requirement certificate, or a person who receives benefits will be able to easily claim welfare discounts from traders who offer them. Kyle said there was currently no plan to use it to prove immigration status, but added: “we’re just in the foothills of this”.
Officials said that losing a phone will not mean losing the wallet as there will be systems to enable recovery. Kyle also tried to allay fears over data breaches, saying the design of the app was “very comfortably within existing data law”.
Speaking at a launch event in east London inspired in part by Silicon Valley product launches, Kyle said: “We are going to transform the relationship between citizen and state.”
He said people who are under 18, who have grown up with smartphones, would view government today and a paper-based bureaucracy as backward.
“Making government services more online does not mean that those people who can’t access the internet will be left behind,” he said. “In fact, what we are discovering is that the more we make online services easier to access … we as a government can start focusing human resources on those people need and can only interact in a human way … We will deliver public services that are more human, not less.”
The technology has been developed in the last six months since Labour took power, and will include security features that are built into modern smartphones, including facial recognition checks.
Source: theguardian.com
