The Government Digital Service has issued guidance alerting public bodies that they can now seek to add documents and use information from the GOV.UK Wallet platform.
Newly published information on “Using GOV.UK Wallet in government” formalises that central government departments are now able to add documents to the new smartphone platform. Working in a similar way to equivalent technology from the likes of Apple and Google, the GOV.UK Wallet will provide citizens with a means of storing state-issued documents in a single place on their phone.
Organisations across the public sector will be able to use the system to access information derived from individuals’ documents to “prove a user’s eligibility for a service”, according to the guidance.
The GDS advice explains that, while Whitehall entities can now add documents to be provided via GOV.UK Wallet, the rest of the public sector – including NHS and local government entities – will “for now... only be able to use the information in the wallet” for verification purposes.
Organisations interested in finding out more about the system – and potentially using it in the future – are instructed to “think about what documents you might want to add to the wallet, or what information you’d be interested in receiving from the wallet”. The newly issued guidance also advises prospective GOV.UK Wallet users to read the platform’s technical information, formally register their interest in the technology, and email GDS with any questions.
The guidance adds: “As a government service, you’ll be able to use GOV.UK Wallet to: securely save a digital version of a document you produce, for example a driving licence; update or remove documents, for example you could remove a document if it’s been used fraudulently; prove a user’s eligibility for a service using other departments’ documents.”
GOV.UK Wallet is due to launch over the summer, with a digital version of the HM Armed Forces Veteran Card being the first document to be made available via the platform. An electronic driving licence is planned to follow later this year.
In time, other documents – including benefit and tax information and, eventually, some form of digital passport – will be offered via the wallet, the government has previously indicated.
The advice document adds: “If you’re a central government department, let us know if you have a document that you’d like your users to add to GOV.UK Wallet. We can discuss next steps and answer any questions you may have. Before you can use the wallet, you must already be using GOV.UK One Login in your service to prove your users’ identity.”
One Login, which will be the verification technology that enables users to access GOV.UK Wallet, is the new government-wide sign-in technology developed by GDS to replace an incumbent patchwork of almost 200 separate accounts systems. The tool has already been implemented to support 50 individual government services, and more than four million people have created an account – although ministers for the previous administration had previously expressed hope that this figure would reach about 30 million by the end of 2024.
One Login has recently been subject to reports of public concerns about security issues, not least because government’s own online records confirm that, in the past six weeks, the technology has lost its certification against the digital identity standards framework operated by GDS parent organisation the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. This has been caused by core technology partner iProov allowing its certification to lapse, according to a report from Computer Weekly.
Parliamentarians have also posed questions to current ministers about reports that former top digital security officials warned 18 months ago that the sign-in tool was “carrying a high level of risk”.
“These comments are outdated and reflect a view from when the programme was in its infancy in 2023,” said online safety minister Baroness Maggie Jones. “We have worked to address all these concerns as evidenced by multiple external independent assessments such as the recent Cyber Assessment Framework GovAssure process which identified areas of good practice including governance, risk management, assurance, monitoring, incident management and lessons learned. Risk mitigation will continue to be central to our approach to ensure we keep pace with the constantly changing cyber threat landscape.”
The new guidance for GOV.UK Wallet reinforces the key role that One Login is intended to play in the new government wallet technology.
“Any documents added to the wallet will be bound to the proven identity linked to a user’s GOV.UK One Login,” the advice says. “That means, for now, a user can only save their own documents in their GOV.UK Wallet. For security, these digital documents will be stored locally on a user’s phone. GOV.UK Wallet will only hold government-issued documents. It will not contain, for example, train or theatre tickets. Using GOV.UK Wallet is entirely optional, and paper or card copies of documents should still be made available.”
The guidelines also set out the benefits the new smartphone system is intended to bring.
“GOV.UK Wallet will make it quicker and easier for users to access and share their documents with government and private organisations,” it says. “The wallet will: make it easier for your users to prove things about themselves; reduce the risk of fraud, for example fake applications and identity theft; save taxpayer money by reducing the manual checking of documents; reduce the need for printing, saving time and money.”
GDS and the UK’s watchdog for the use of digital-identity systems recently met with tech firms to explore how GOV.UK Wallet could integrate with commercially developed counterparts.
When the wallet was announced, government indicated that it was likely that officials would, in due course, work with the likes of Apple, Google and others to explore whether government documents could be made accessible via private sector platforms.
At the event last month, GDS – alongside another DSIT entity, the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes – took steps to “engage with digital verification providers on how the GOV.UK Wallet can work with and alongside private sector solutions to offer users the best experience and appropriate choice [and] this will be followed by technical engagement with providers in the coming months”, according to science, research and innovation minister Lord Patrick Vallance.