Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2014 to Question 211904, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including a public sector provider of identity assurance in the Gov.uk Verify programme.

Government has decided not to provide identity assurance services directly but set the standards for providers, allowing people to choose which provider they wish to use. Government is not directly involved in verifying or authenticating people’s identity or storing identity data.

The Post Office is an identity provider on the GOV.UK Verify framework.