No digital ID checks until you change jobs, says No 10

The government says its controversial digital ID scheme will not be applied retrospectively as UK workers will only need it when they take up jobs after its proposed introduction by 2028.

We will announce plans in SeptemberSir Keir Starmer said they were a means of preventing people from “slipping into the shadow economy”.

It has now been confirmed that the scheme will only be mandatory for jobs awarded after its launch, which ministers say will happen by the end of Parliament.

Speaking to BBC News about the wider aims of the plans, Sir Keir stressed that a digital ID will not be mandatory and people who choose not to have one will not be denied access to essential services such as healthcare.

“You’ll never need an ID to get into a hospital or anything like that,” he said.

“For people who just don’t want it, well, they don’t need it—except for the right to work.”

However, it is unclear whether this idea will be accepted by the public. A petition calling for the law's repeal has received nearly three million signatures.

In an interview with the BBC, Sir Keir outlined what he said were the benefits of a digital ID that would be available to all UK citizens and legal residents.

He said his goal was to make people's lives easier by “reducing the confusion” associated with providing multiple examples of identification for tasks such as applying to university, buying a home or renting.

All of this may sometimes mean that you need to pay third-party services for official verification.

Chris Norris, head of policy at the National Landlords Association, told the BBC he would welcome anything that would make it easier to check people wanting to rent.

“This could be helpful in standardizing the types of IDs available,” he said.

The Prime Minister also told the BBC that a digital ID could reduce bank fraud by making it harder for criminals to access private accounts using fake or stolen physical documents.

There will be a public consultation on this at the end of 2025, but there is already significant public opposition – along with some confusion about what it actually is.

“Public opinion is very much divided,” said technology specialist Rachel Coldicutt.

“There's a group that would welcome it, who use the wallet app on their phone every day and want it to be seamless, another group that doesn't openly welcome it, and another group that is confused and doesn't want any more admin.”

She said there was a “quite thriving” market for independent digital identity providers in the UK, which she described as a “local homegrown industry”.

“If the government expands the supply of digital IDs, it could destroy a growing industry,” she said.

The Prime Minister's intervention appears to have done little to win over those concerned about privacy.

“Keir Starmer has already lost public trust in digital ID,” said Silkie Carlo, head of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch.

“The only way to protect the public’s privacy and choice is to scrap plans for a mandatory digital ID, as millions of people have petitioned the Prime Minister to do.”

But the Prime Minister denied it would ever be used as a surveillance tool and said the personal data that would be involved in its creation would “absolutely have very strong encryption.”

For added security, it will also exist on your device rather than being stored on computers in the data center.

While its optionality may mitigate some of the criticism around digital inclusion and those without access to smartphones, it may also make it a less powerful tool as a result.

Digital ID is already used in many countries around the world, including India, Denmark and Singapore.

China introduced a voluntary system this year, but there are concerns about its likely use by police to track online activity. One of the first countries to adopt e-citizenship was Estonia in 2002.

Sir Keir did not specify who might run the UK's digital ID scheme or whether it would be a US tech giant.

It emerged today that it will now be overseen by the Cabinet Office rather than the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, which is responsible for other government digital services.