Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Government launches consultation on making public services quicker, easier and more secure to access with digital ID, published on 10 March 2026, how many people will be on the People’s Panel.

Participants will be recruited through a process called sortition. This is a random postcode lottery. It is a way of selecting individuals to take part in deliberative processes, where everyone is given an equal chance to be invited. No individual can buy their way in or simply turn up at the event. All participants must be 18 or over to join the People’s Panel.

Our partners at the Sortition Foundation manage this process. Sortition Foundation will mail out to thousands of households, at random, to invite members of the public to take part. Over 100 people will be selected to participate in the People’s Panel on Digital ID.