GOV.UK Verify

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GOV.UK Verify is an identity assurance system developed by the British Government Digital Service (GDS). The system is intended to provide a single trusted login across all British government digital services, verifying the user’s identity in 15 minutes.[1] It allows users to choose one of several companies to verify their identity to a standard level of assurance before accessing 22 central government online services.[2]

History[]

The Cabinet Office started work on the system in 2011, when it was known as the Identity Assurance Programme (IDAP).[1][3] A private beta phase began in February 2014,[4] moving into public beta on 14 October 2014.[5] The system was declared live on 24 May 2016.[6][7]

In June 2018, it was announced that the responsibility for digital ID policy had moved from GDS to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Responsibility for development and rollout of GOV.UK Verify remains with GDS.[8]

Certified companies[]

Third-party companies are responsible for carrying out identity verification within the scheme. The first five companies – known as identity providers (IdPs) – that signed up to provide the service through a tender issued by the Department of Work and Pensions[9] were the Post Office, Verizon, Experian, Digidentity and Mydex CIC.[10] After a further tender issued by the Cabinet Office in 2014,[11] Barclays, GB Group, Morpho and Royal Mail became certified companies.[12]

While Mydex CIC participated in the original tender process it did not go on to become a certified GOV.UK identity provider.[13] In 2016 Verizon was temporarily[14] and then permanently[15] removed from the list of certified providers.

In October 2018, GDS announced that five of the seven identity providers - Barclays, , Experian, Post Office and - had signed contracts for a further 18 months.[16] Users of Citizensafe from GB Group and Royal Mail's identity service would be able to continue using their GOV.UK Verify identity for twelve months but would need to set up a new account through one of the other five companies.[16] On 24 March 2020, Barclays stopped providing new GOV.UK verify digital identities,[17] and both SecureIdentity and Experian subsequently also pulled out of providing identities for both new and existing customers.[18] This left only two providers- Post Office and Digidentity.

Level of assurance[]

GOV.UK Verify certified companies must verify customers' identities to level 2 as defined by Good Practice Guide 45 published jointly by CESG and the Cabinet Office. This level of identity assurance is intended to be sufficient to support a claim in a civil court.[19]

List of connected services[]

The following 22 services are connected to GOV.UK Verify as of January 2020:[20]

Service Service provider
Total Reward Statements / Manage your NHS Pension NHS Business Services Authority
Get your State Pension Department for Work and Pensions
Sign your mortgage deed[21] HM Land Registry
Disclosure and barring service Home Office
Vehicle Operator Licensing DVSA
Personal tax account HM Revenue & Customs
Check your income tax HM Revenue & Customs
Renew your short term medical driving licence DVLA
Report a medical condition that affects your driving DVLA
Check your state pension Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs
Universal Credit Digital Service Department for Work and Pensions
Help your friends or family with their tax HM Revenue & Customs
Claim a tax refund HM Revenue & Customs
Self Assessment tax return HM Revenue & Customs
Claim for redundancy payment Insolvency Service
View or share your driving licence information DVLA
Rural Payments DEFRA
PAYE for employees: Company car HM Revenue & Customs
Social Work England Identity Department for Education
Teacher Student Loan Reimbursement Scheme Department for Education
Add a driving licence check code to your mobile phone DVLA
Defence Cyber Protection Partnership Ministry of Defence

Use beyond central government[]

Local government[]

GDS has been working with local authorities since 2013 to pilot the use of GOV.UK Verify by local government.[22][23][24] Local government services piloted as of July 2017 included applying for free bus passes and 'blue badge' disabled parking permits.[25]

Private sector[]

From the outset, GDS had intended GOV.UK Verify use to be extended to the private sector. While work was underway in 2017,[26] this was still not in place in October 2018 when the GDS head Kevin Cunnington announced that "GOV.UK Verify is now mature enough for us to take it to the next stage - opening it up beyond the private sector for the private sector to take the lead".[16]

Cunnington announced that five of the identity providers had signed contracts for a further 18 months, after which the scheme would not receive further funding from government. The development of the scheme would instead be in the hands of the private sector.[16][27]

NHS[]

GOV.UK Verify was one of the options considered by the National Health Service for its citizen identity solution.[28] The NHS since announced that it was pursuing its own app-based solution, but was looking for a way to enable people who have a GOV.UK Verify account to use it to log in to NHS systems.[29]

International[]

Work is underway to enable non-British citizens to access the service from September 2018.[25]

GOV.UK Verify is designed with interoperability with the ID schemes of other EU states as part of the eIDAS scheme. On 28 August 2018, GOV.UK Verify took its first step towards enabling British residents to use their GOV.UK Verify account to log on to online public services in other EU countries.[30][31] The scheme was 'notified'[jargon] on 2 May 2019.[32]

Criticism[]

The GOV.UK Verify has not met various targets that GDS set for it:[33]

  • The platform was originally due to launch in 2012, but did not do so until 2016.
  • The success rate in verifying individuals is 47% as of October 2018.[34]

It does not meet all the identity requirements of government departments, such as identifying intermediaries or businesses.[33]

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) reviewed Verify in July 2018, noting the department's reluctance to continue funding the project, with another report requesting the GOV.UK Verify identity assurance programme should be terminated.[35]

In October 2018, Jo Platt, the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said that £130 million had been spent on developing GOV.UK Verify.[36]

Future development[]

In December 2018, GDS announced that over the next 18 months they would be working with standards bodies, identity providers and the private sector to:[37]

  • Make the standards easier to follow and use
  • Accept more types of identity evidence
  • Remove barriers to reuse of digital identities across the public and private sector
  • Make better use of government data to help people prove who they are online
  • Open up the market based on a standards-based approach

However there are concerns over this approach[38] and three of the remaining identity providers - Experian, Barclays and Secure Identity - have indicated that they are withdrawing from the scheme[39] leaving only the Post Office and Digidentity. The Post Office depends on Digidentity infrastructure to operate as an identity provider.[39]

In April 2020, funding for GOV.UK Verify was extended by 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[40]

In August 2020, TechUK criticised the Government's progress since 2019 as being slow and opaque.[40]

See also[]

Further reading[]

  • Whitley, Edgar A. (November 2018), Trusted digital identity provision: GOV.UK Verify's federated approach (PDF), Center for Global Development – via London School of Economics and Political Science

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Jee, Charlotte (24 May 2016). "UK government identity scheme GOV.UK Verify launched today: What is GOV.UK Verify? GOV.UK Verify explained". Computer World UK.
  2. ^ Merrett, Neil (16 February 2017). "GOV.UK Verify, NHS numbers and the 25 million user challenge". Government Computing.
  3. ^ Glick, Bryan (16 September 2014). "GDS unveils 'Gov.UK Verify' public services identity assurance scheme". Computer Weekly.
  4. ^ Curtis, Sophie (9 October 2014). "How the government plans to 'verify' your identity online". The Telegraph.
  5. ^ Arthur, Charles (6 November 2014). "Gov.uk quietly disrupts the problem of online identity login". The Guardian.
  6. ^ Burton, Graeme (25 May 2016). "Gov.UK Verify: Late, unnecessary and finally launching this week". Computing.
  7. ^ Evenstad, Lis (19 May 2016). "Gov.uk Verify to go live 24 May 2016". Computer Weekly.
  8. ^ "Digital-identity policy function shifted from GDS to DCMS". PublicTechnology.net. 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  9. ^ "Contracts Finder Archive". data.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  10. ^ Nguyen, Anh (3 September 2013). "Government signs first identity assurance contracts". Computer World UK.
  11. ^ Jee, Charlotte (17 December 2014). "Cabinet Office seeking suppliers for GOV.UK Verify". Computer World UK.
  12. ^ Hughes, Janet (25 March 2015). "Procurement 2: New identity suppliers to join GOV.UK Verify". Identity Assurance blog. Government Digital Service.
  13. ^ "GOV.UK Verify and Mydex CIC | GOV.UK Verify". Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  14. ^ "Verizon "temporarily removed" as GOV.UK Verify ID provider - Government Computing Network". central-government.governmentcomputing.com. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  15. ^ "The latest improvements across GOV.UK Verify's certified companies | GOV.UK Verify". 6 January 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Taking GOV.UK Verify to the next stage - Government Digital Service". gds.blog.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  17. ^ "Barclays Identity Service | Barclays". www.barclays.co.uk.
  18. ^ "Experian to close more than two million Gov.uk Verify accounts". ComputerWeekly.com.
  19. ^ Simpson, Gary; Lindley, Emma. "Investigating Challenges in Digital Identity" (PDF). OIX UK. Open Identity Exchange: 4.
  20. ^ "Government services using GOV.UK Verify". GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  21. ^ "Verifying a secure digital mortgage service - HM Land Registry". hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  22. ^ Mathieson, SA (29 March 2017). "LCIOC Latest: GDS, Verify, NHS Digital Services". Soctim blog.
  23. ^ Southern, Joanne (22 March 2017). "Guest post: working with GDS on transforming local services". Identity Assurance blog.
  24. ^ Hill, Rebecca (3 May 2017). "Local government Verify pilot hit by council departures". Public Technology.net.
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b Trendall, Sam (13 July 2017). "GOV.UK Verify to be extended to cover other countries next year". www.publictechnology.net.
  26. ^ Merrett, Neil (30 March 2017). "Summer launch planned for GOV.UK Verify private sector testing". Government Computing.
  27. ^ "UK.gov withdraws life support from flagship digital identity system". www.theregister.com.
  28. ^ Merrett, Neil (4 April 2017). "NHS Digital targets late September online identity launch". Government Computing.
  29. ^ "NHS login to use video for initial ID | UKAuthority". UKAuthority. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  30. ^ "GOV.UK Verify eID scheme pre-notified under eIDAS". CEF Digital. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  31. ^ "GOV.UK Verify eID scheme pre-notified under eIDAS" (PDF). European Commission. 24 January 2019.
  32. ^ "Overview of pre-notified and notified eID schemes under eIDAS - eID User Community - CEF Digital". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b Fishenden, Jerry (5 May 2017). "Gov.uk Verify and identity assurance - it's time for a rethink". Computer Weekly.
  34. ^ "Dashboard - GOV.UK Verify - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  35. ^ Glick, Bryan (5 September 2018). "Government projects watchdog recommends terminating Gov.uk Verify identity project". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-09-08.
  36. ^ Trendall, Sam (12 October 2018). "Shadow minister slams government for 'abandoning its responsibility' on Verify". PublicTechnology.net. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  37. ^ "What's next for GOV.UK Verify? - Government Digital Service". gds.blog.gov.uk. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  38. ^ Glick, Bryan (5 August 2019). "Why Gov.uk Verify faces a critical few months - again - Computer Weekly Editor's Blog". www.computerweekly.com. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  39. ^ Jump up to: a b Glick, Bryan (23 August 2019). "Three more identity providers to withdraw from troubled Gov.uk Verify programme". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  40. ^ Jump up to: a b "Digital identities: the missing link in a UK digital economy" (PDF). TechUK. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.

This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: "Dashboard - GOV.UK Verify - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-05.

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