UK to introduce digital driving licences to ‘transform public services’ | Politics

The UK is to introduce digital driving licences this yr as the federal government appears to be like to make use of know-how to “rework public companies”.

The digital model of driving licences will likely be accessible in a digital pockets in a authorities app, as a substitute of being added to current Google or Apple wallets. It may very well be accepted as a type of ID when voting, buying alcohol or boarding home flights.

Whereas bodily licences will nonetheless be issued and the brand new digital identities won’t be obligatory, the federal government has mentioned the transfer is a part of their dedication to make use of know-how to “make individuals’s lives simpler and rework public companies”.

A authorities spokesperson mentioned: “Know-how now makes it doable for digital identities to be safer than bodily ones, however we stay clear that they won’t be made obligatory.”

The digital pockets is known to have safety measures much like many banking apps, and solely house owners of respective licences will be capable to entry it via inbuilt security measures in smartphones, resembling biometrics and multi-factor authentication.

The voluntary digital possibility is to be launched later this yr, in response to the Instances. Attainable options embody permitting customers to cover their addresses in sure conditions, resembling in bars or outlets, and utilizing digital licences for age verification at grocery store self-checkouts.

The federal government is claimed to be contemplating integrating different companies into the app, resembling tax funds, advantages claims and different types of identification resembling nationwide insurance coverage numbers, however will cease in need of introducing obligatory nationwide ID playing cards, which had been pushed for by former prime minister Tony Blair and William Hague.

On the time, privateness marketing campaign group Huge Brother Watch referred to as the potential transfer “one of many greatest assaults on privateness ever seen within the UK”.

Practically 50 million Britons have both a provisional or full driving licence. Comparable initiatives exist already in Australia, Denmark, Iceland and Norway. And by 2026, the European Union is requiring members states to develop a minimum of one type of official digital identification by 2026, which may then be accepted throughout the bloc.