Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the level of the impact of digital ID on the number of undocumented workers in the grey economy.

Due to the hidden nature of illegal working, there is no reliable estimate on the scale of the issue.

The Digital ID programme is part of a broader strategy to tackle illegal immigration. By making it harder for people without the right to work to gain employment, the government plans to reduce incentives for unlawful entry.

The digital ID will build on the existing digital right to work checks for foreign nationals where eVisa share codes are currently used, further streamlining the process. Digital IDs will:

o Make it easier for employers to comply by standardising and simplifying right to work checks

o Make it easier for British citizens to demonstrate a right to work.

o Remove the reliance on physical documents in the UK, making it harder for forged documents to be used as proof of right to work.

The Cabinet Office will launch a public consultation in the coming weeks and has already started engaging key groups.