This is how we win public support for digital ID
3 min read
In September, Keir Starmer took a bold step in announcing a national digital ID scheme. He should have been bolder. The country needs an ambitious vision of digital ID that is about more than closing loopholes in our shadow economy.
Done right, it can be the foundation of a new model of public services that just work: personalised, preventative, always accessible. It can safeguard our rights and enable the state that treads lightly on people’s lives, which the Prime Minister promised last year. It is important that the government now make this case with conviction and verve.
Today (Tuesday), I’m going to the Home Affairs Committee in the hope of showing why and how.
81 countries, including 51 high-income ones, now have an online digital identity, giving citizens more control of their data, fairer services, and less bureaucracy.
In Britain, the public increasingly recognised its potential. People of all ages and political convictions came to see it as a common-sense solution to the faff of dealing with government. This summer, support exceeded 60 per cent.
Now, the picture has shifted again. Latest polls show support at 36 per cent and opposition at 45 per cent. Some say this means the idea is dead in the water. But that would be a naive reading.
Getting digital ID right is a must. People don’t want their data to be hacked, seen by strangers, or used without permission. They want to know how digital ID will benefit them without excluding others.
These are crucial questions, but opponents have used them to stifle the debate. We should not put up with this. The public deserves answers.
We need a grown-up conversation about how to build a digital ID that takes the best of a proven technology and works for us all.
Consider our data. We are often at our most vulnerable when dealing with the state. Digital ID can put the citizen in control. Are your pension contributions up to date? Has HMRC suddenly decided you don’t live in the UK anymore? Has DWP caught up with that change of address you reported months ago? A digital ID can be designed to let us see what the state knows and correct any errors.
Or privacy. With a digital ID, we can share with the state only what it needs to know. Citizens can, for the first time, see who has access to their information and why. It’s no surprise that Estonia and Denmark – the poster children of digital ID – appear high on global freedom charts. Digital ID could become a civil liberty campaigner’s most powerful tool.
Most importantly, we need to show that digital ID is there to help each one of us, not the government.
Public services are broken. On average, Britons spend 1.5 weeks a year dealing with bureaucracy. Digital ID is an essential piece of the new infrastructure we need to fix this.
Take child benefit. Today, you fill out a form with information the state often already knows. Then you wait. HMRC texts you to say they are processing the claim, and it might take up to 12 weeks. Just what you need with a newborn and no sleep.
Digital ID could make the experience seamless. Register a birth, and a notification would tell you if you were pre-approved for child benefit. One tap grants permission, and the payment is on its way. If any information is missing, a quick digital prompt guides you to fix the issue.
The public is tired of services that don’t work. They want a state that functions. Digital ID is a necessary step towards a renewed contract between the citizen and the state, based on fairness, citizen control, and convenience.
That is the case we need to make. That is how we win the public over.
Alexander Iosad is Director of Government Innovation at the Tony Blair Institute.
