Electronic Government: Proof of Identity

(asked on 6th July 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of permitting the use of identity documents other than a passport and driving license for verifying Government Gateway accounts.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 14th July 2022

Before sharing any personal data with a customer online the Government have a duty to establish their identity to a sufficient degree of confidence. The Government aims to strike a balance between making this journey as straightforward as we can for customers but, at the same time, setting the bar high enough to deter fraudsters.

When asked to prove their identity, customers are currently able to select two items from the following where they are available:

• Tax credit claim details

• P60 or most recent payslips

• UK passports

• Information held on credit file (such as loans, credit cards or mortgages)

• Self-assessment tax return details

• Northern Ireland and British driving licences

Most customers can use Government services securely online, but we do recognise that not every customer currently can. HMRC is constantly working on the Government Gateway service and the identity verification capability that supports it to help more people gain access while keeping customer information secure. Some of these developments include:

• Following discussions with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency the UK driving licence was been added as an additional evidence source within the HMRC identity verification service on 1 July 2022; and

• Government Digital Service (GDS) is developing a new mobile app that will allow people to use the camera on their smartphone/device to confirm a match with photographic identification, starting with the driving licence but extending to support other biometric documents over time. HMRC will be adopting this from the summer, giving some of our customers an alternative way to prove their identity. HMRC will be working with GDS to make it available to more customers in phases.

In the longer term, HMRC intends to move services to One Login for Government, the new cross-government sign-on and identity verification system being developed by GDS. HMRC is working closely with GDS on the design and development of the new service to ensure it best meets the needs of all our customers.

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