Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what engagement her Department has had with police representative bodies on the introduction of digital ID cards.

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.

Mandating digital ID for right to work checks will strengthen our current approach by:

o Acting as a deterrent to would-be migrants hoping to work in the UK illegally.

o Ensuring consistency and simplifying the checks that employers must carry out, making it easier for UK citizens and legal residents to demonstrate they have the right to work.

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

The Government will start a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year, and has begun engaging with several key stakeholders already. We will continue to engage with a range of organisations over the coming weeks as we prepare the consultation. Police representative bodies will have the opportunity to contribute to the consultation process.