Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2019 to Question 255697 on Alcoholic Drinks: Sales, what assessment he has made of whether the BSI Publicly Available Specification (a) 499: 2019 entitled Code of practice for digital identification and strong customer authentication and (b) 1296:2018 entitled Online age checking: Provision and use of online age check services: Code of Practice could be used to amend the mandatory licensing condition on age verification.

The formation of a joint Digital Identity Unit by the Cabinet Office and the Department of Culture Media and Sport was recently announced. My officials will seek to work with that unit to examine the suitability of existing standards for the purpose of amending the mandatory licensing condition.