Influential think tank Labour Together has published a new paper pushing for the introduction of BritCard: a mandatory national digital identity.
The BritCard will be issued free of charge to all those with the right to live or work in the UK, whether they are British-born nationals or legal migrants. It will be a verifiable digital credential downloaded onto a user’s smartphone, which could be instantly checked by employers or landlords using a free verifier app.
“By introducing a mandatory, universal, national identity credential – BritCard – the Labour Government has the opportunity to build a new piece of civic infrastructure, something that would become a familiar feature of daily life for everyone in the country,” the think tank said.
“It would support better enforcement of migration rules, and protect vulnerable British citizens from being wrongly denied their rights. It could end identity exclusion, resolving uncertainty and risk for those whose status is uncertain, and providing a quick, secure, privacy-preserving means for everyone to verify their identity and their migration status when dealing with government, when taking up a new job, or taking on property.”
Labour Together said the BritCard would lay the foundations for a fully-functioning digital identity system that would in time deliver huge benefits in terms of great efficiency and better outcomes in public services, as well as being a driver of growth, building on the existing One Login and Gov.UK Wallet.
“All the necessary elements of the technology needed to deliver BritCard exist and are already in use in multiple arenas. The additional cost would be modest relative to other forms of infrastructure – we estimate between £140-£400 million,” it said.
“Applying Internet-era test-and-learn design practices to the development of the BritCard would help to avoid the pitfalls faced by some public sector digital platforms.”
Other proposals made in the paper include:
- Make a robust and up-to-date assessment of the current undocumented population.
- Hire a very senior, high-profile and experienced political figurehead or tech sector professional to be the cross-government champion and external face of its digital identity programme.
- Embed digital-era working practices in the new project team, including definition and regular publication of usability metrics (e.g. onboarding success rate for people without passports).
- Rebrand the Gov.UK App and Gov.UK Wallet as the “BritCard app”.
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