Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 November 2023, what progress his Department has made on the development of a common mobile app strategy, framework and technical standards.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) has convened discussions with Chief Digital and Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers from across government to identify key principles and guardrails for the mobile app strategy. The strategy will be finalised next year, as set out in the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data.
Alongside this, the Government Digital Service (GDS) is developing a GOV.UK App that builds upon the success of the existing GOV.UK One Login identity checking app, which has been downloaded over 5.7 million times.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has spent on in-person identity checks for GOV.UK One Login identity verification as of 26 March 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
GOV.UK One Login’s face-to-face identity verification route went live on 25 July 2023. The Government Digital Service has, as of 26 March 2024, spent £778,064 on the contract with the Post Office to set up and undertake in-person identity checks.
The public expects quick, secure and user-friendly access to government services. Previously, UK citizens and residents needed to grapple with multiple sign-in methods and identity verification routes when using government services online.
GOV.UK One Login is replacing these duplicative systems across government with a single account and identity checking system. This will make it easier for users to access the services they need, reduce costs to government, and provide stronger protections against fraud.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has spent on the GOV.UK One Login customer support centre in the 2023-24 financial year, as of 26 March 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
GOV.UK One Login’s customer support centre went live on 31 October 2023. The Government Digital Service has, as of 26 March 2024, spent £926,443 to set up and operate this contact centre.
The public expects quick, secure and user-friendly access to government services. Previously, UK citizens and residents needed to grapple with multiple sign-in methods and identity verification routes when using government services online.
GOV.UK One Login is replacing these duplicative systems across government with a single account and identity checking system. This will make it easier for users to access the services they need, reduce costs to government, and provide stronger protections against fraud.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that patient records and personal data are only accessible to those who need to view them, and to ensure connections between software systems in health facilities include suitable control measures for this risk.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National IT systems must ensure that users can be identified correctly, and are given appropriate access. This is achieved using identity verification capabilities, including creating a national digital identity for each authorised user.
Each local National Health Service organisation which requires access to the national IT systems is required to set up its own local Registration Authority (RA) which consists of people and processes who are trained to create identities and grant access for their staff to the national IT systems. NHS England has published the RA Policy requirements with which every local NHS organisation that has an RA must comply. This reflects current best practice for identity and access management as informed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance.
The RA Policy also allows non-NHS health and care organisations providing direct care to run their own RA service. RA hosting is subject to meeting requirements and assessment criteria, which are soon to be published.
The RA process includes the use of RA codes, assigned to professional users’ smartcards to give them access to the correct information within national IT systems.
The RA codes which are assigned for a specific user will allow that user to create and process referrals appropriately depending on their job role.
Local organisations which have an RA function are required to have an RA audit policy and conduct annual audits on NHS Smartcard usage as part of their RA governance. RA Managers (those responsible for administering the RA function within an organisation) must implement a process to run the RA reports on a regular basis.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2024, to Question 17492 on Veterans: Identity Cards, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of assessing the effectiveness of the advertising of the veterans’ ID cards application service.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The HM Armed Forces Veteran Card Scheme has had a two-phase rollout. Phase 1 is complete; all Service leavers since December 2018 automatically receive a Veteran Card from Ministry of Defence (MOD) as part of their Service Leaver Pack.
Phase 2 extends access to the Veteran Card to those who left before December 2018. The new digital application and verification service launched at 00:01 on 28 January 2024 allowing pre-2018 veterans to apply for the card.
As of 18 March 2024, there have been a total of 90,381 Phase 2 applications received, and 71,752 cards issued. During March 2024, 12,907 applications have been received and 9,807 posted.
Extensive communications have been issued by both MOD and the Office for Veterans' Affairs in relation to the application service. This included significant social media activity, bespoke videos, a GOV.UK news article and an article in the Sunday Express. Applications have also now opened for veterans in prison as part of the rehabilitation process. MOD has partnered with the Ministry of Justice to communicate availability of the cards to every prison in the UK.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2024, to Question 17492 on Veterans: Identity Cards, what progress his Department has made on reaching this month's production target for veterans' ID cards.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The HM Armed Forces Veteran Card Scheme has had a two-phase rollout. Phase 1 is complete; all Service leavers since December 2018 automatically receive a Veteran Card from Ministry of Defence (MOD) as part of their Service Leaver Pack.
Phase 2 extends access to the Veteran Card to those who left before December 2018. The new digital application and verification service launched at 00:01 on 28 January 2024 allowing pre-2018 veterans to apply for the card.
As of 18 March 2024, there have been a total of 90,381 Phase 2 applications received, and 71,752 cards issued. During March 2024, 12,907 applications have been received and 9,807 posted.
Extensive communications have been issued by both MOD and the Office for Veterans' Affairs in relation to the application service. This included significant social media activity, bespoke videos, a GOV.UK news article and an article in the Sunday Express. Applications have also now opened for veterans in prison as part of the rehabilitation process. MOD has partnered with the Ministry of Justice to communicate availability of the cards to every prison in the UK.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2024 to Question 13679 on Veterans: Identity Cards, if he will take steps to accelerate the roll-out of veterans’ ID cards.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The HM Armed Forces Veteran Card Scheme has had a two-phase rollout. Phase 1 is complete; all Service leavers since December 2018 automatically receive a Veteran Card from the MOD as part of their Service Leaver Pack.
Phase 2 extends access to the Veteran Card to those who left before December 2018. The new digital application and verification service launched at 00:01 on 28 January 2024 allowing pre-2018 veterans to apply for the card.
The current delivery contract allows for the production of 50,000 Phase 2 pre-2018 veteran cards per month and are issued within an average of 14 calendar days from date of application receipt. As of 7 March 2024, in the six weeks since launch, there have been a total of 83,730 Phase 2 applications received, and 67,335 cards issued.
Demand is determined by the number of veterans who choose to apply and not the overall number of veterans in the UK. Extensive communications have been issued by both the MOD and Office for Veterans' Affairs in relation to the application service.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2024 to Question 13679 on Veterans: Identity Cards, if he will take steps with (a) private and (b) third sector organisations to accelerate the roll-out of veterans’ ID cards.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The HM Armed Forces Veteran Card Scheme has had a two-phase rollout. Phase 1 is complete; all Service leavers since December 2018 automatically receive a Veteran Card from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as part of their Service Leaver Pack.
Phase 2 extends access to the Veteran Card to those who left before December 2018. The new digital application and verification service launched at 00:01 on 28 January 2024 allowing pre-2018 veterans to apply for the card.
The current delivery contract allows for the production of 50,000 Phase 2 pre-2018 veteran cards per month and are issued within an average of 14 calendar days from date of application receipt. As of 7 March 2024, in the six weeks since launch, there have been a total of 83,730 Phase 2 applications received, and 67,335 cards issued.
Demand is determined by the number of veterans who choose to apply and not the overall number of veterans in the UK. Extensive communications have been issued by both MOD and Office for Veterans' Affairs in relation to the application service.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will have discussions with representatives of Apple on potential steps to tackle fraud relating to Apple Gift cards.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Government is committed to tackling online fraud and holding those who profit from it to account by working closely with industry, regulators and consumer groups to consider legislative and non-legislative solutions.
This includes continuing work on digital identity and data protection and work with the telecommunications and other sectors to target harden systems and design out key online vulnerabilities.
We have launched Stop! Think Fraud, a new campaign led by the Home Office in collaboration with many organisations across government, law enforcement, banking, tech firms, and charities to give people the tools and information they need to stay ahead of scams, and help protect themselves against fraud.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to tackle fraud using gift cards.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Government is committed to tackling online fraud and holding those who profit from it to account by working closely with industry, regulators and consumer groups to consider legislative and non-legislative solutions.
This includes continuing work on digital identity and data protection and work with the telecommunications and other sectors to target harden systems and design out key online vulnerabilities.
We have launched Stop! Think Fraud, a new campaign led by the Home Office in collaboration with many organisations across government, law enforcement, banking, tech firms, and charities to give people the tools and information they need to stay ahead of scams, and help protect themselves against fraud.