The UK government has revealed some thinking about digital identity in response to written questions from MPs, while continuing to say next to nothing about the scheme’s cost.
On January 12, Conservative MP Sir David Davis, who as shadow home secretary from 2003 to 2008 led opposition to the last Labour government’s identity card scheme, asked 17 ministers “how much they plan to reduce their department’s budget to help fund the digital ID scheme.”
Most of the ministers have provided exactly the same answer saying that costs would be met “within the existing spending review settlements,” adding: “No final decisions will be made until after the consultation.” The government plans to launch a consultation on the scheme in February.
Home Office minister Mike Tapp struck a relatively distinctive note in saying that the Cabinet Office was working with other departments on policy and design decisions over digital identity: “Whilst this activity is underway, it is not currently possible to finalise cost estimations and the impact these will have on the Home Office’s budget.”
In December, the government rejected a £1.8 billion estimate of the scheme’s cost made by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as part of its analysis of November’s Budget speech. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s permanent secretary, Emran Mian, told a Commons select committee that the cost would depend on the outcome of the consultation.
This month has seen digital identity minister Josh Simons providing more substantive answers to MPs, including who will build and run the scheme. Replying to Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley, who asked about the possible involvement of technology companies such as Palantir, the minister replied: “We expect the new digital ID to be designed, built and run by in-house government teams, not outsourced to external suppliers.” However, he did not rule out the use of “specialist external services or expertise.”
In October, Palantir’s UK boss, Louis Mosley, said the project “isn’t one for us” as it was not in Labour’s general election manifesto, although at the time the scheme was going to be compulsory for anyone taking a new job by the end of this parliamentary session.
The government dropped the compulsory element earlier this month, saying it could be one way to prove eligibility to work through a digital check.
Simons has also provided a bit of information on how digital identity will work. In response to a question from Conservative MP Blake Stephenson, the minister said that “any checking of such IDs will be done via a robust digital process. For example, we do not think people should be able to ‘flash’ their digital ID on their phone screen.”
This matches the Government Digital Service’s plans to add programmatic verification to digital versions of the veterans’ ID card.
Simons did not rule out the scheme being required to sign into social media accounts when asked by Conservative MP Mike Wood whether he had considered this, although neither did he address the idea directly.
If the government ends up banning under-16s from social media, as looks increasingly likely following a vote in the House of Lords, its new digital identity could be a controversial way to achieve this.
The minister said the government is determined to make digital identity work for those without smartphones, the elderly, and those who are less digitally confident, partly through “a major government digital inclusion drive,” in response to a question from ex-Reform MP James McMurdock.
Last year, Simons said the scheme’s accessibility efforts could involve issuing physical documents to some people. You might call such a document an identity card and its virtual equivalent a digital identity card, but he would not.
Replying on January 9 to a question from Labour MP Rachael Maskell asking “if he will make it his policy not to introduce ID cards,” the minister replied: “On 26 September 2025, the Prime Minister announced plans for free digital ID to be available to all UK citizens and legal residents. This is not an ID card.” ®