The UK government has confirmed it will build its national digital identity app in-house, using internal government resources rather than outsourcing the core platform to a private developer – and the design choice about where your data lives is significant.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones announced the plan at a Downing Street press conference, describing the initiative as “Government by app.” The Government Digital Service will lead the technical build. The app is designed to give UK residents a single verified identity for accessing multiple government services without having to re-prove who they are to each department.
The architecture is federated rather than centralized. Personal data accessed through the app stays with the department that holds it: benefit entitlement records stay with the Department for Work and Pensions, driving records with the DVLA, and tax information with HMRC. No new centralized database of personal information will be created. The app is effectively a mobile interface that lets verified users access their own data across agencies – not a platform that aggregates that data in a single repository.
For mobile identity, the federated model matters. One of the persistent concerns about government digital ID programs is that they create large, centralized stores of personal data that become high-value targets. Keeping data with originating agencies while enabling access through a common mobile credential addresses part of that concern structurally rather than through policy promises alone.
An eight-week public consultation is currently underway on the system’s design, including questions about the minimum eligible age. The government’s current position sets the floor at 16, but the consultation is asking whether younger people should also have access. New services added to the app are expected to require parliamentary approval before inclusion.
The project’s scale is significant. HMRC currently handles around 100,000 phone calls daily; the DVLA processes approximately 45,000 letters per day. Jones cited automating these interactions through the app as the main efficiency driver, projecting tens of billions of pounds in savings and a net economic benefit of £4.3 billion over the next decade. A preliminary cost estimate for the build is £1.8 billion over three years, though the Cabinet Office notes that figure is not yet definitive.
Health data falls outside the scope of this system – NHS records stay within the NHS app. Other services, including childcare support and pension statements, may be added in later phases.
Source: BBC
–
By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
