A new national standard for Digital Identity is likely to be unveiled by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as early as November, aligning it with government priorities around it better supporting the digital economy than the incumbent version, GOV.UK Verify.
And while the new standard would be ubiquitous and interoperable – but may not be Verify compliant, signalling yet again that the scheme may not have much of a future.
Plans were outlined in a secret meeting at techUK’s Digital Identity Working Group meeting, where senior DCMS staff including its Policy and Legislation Manager, Andrew Elliott, spoke to concerned suppliers.
In that meeting, it is being claimed, Elliott stated that, “We don’;t really think there’s much of an appetite for the Verify product in its current state. It only has 2.7 million users: we don’t think it’s going to achieve mass adoption rates in its current form [and] has a journey to go through… we are more concerned about the broader issues of the economy [and want] something which is used across the economy in lots of different ways. It’s no good having a digital identity which you’re going to create once then forget about. It’s got to somehow be a common experience.”
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The news comes from Government Computing newspaper, whose Editor, David Bicknell, writes:
”The move was seen by some attendees as an ‘evolution’ from current thinking [on] GOV.UK Verify.”
Bicknell will be chairing the upcoming (November) Think Digital Identity for Government 2018 event – which could well be held just as the ultimate fate of Verify is revealed.
