Opening remarks from the Minister for Digital Infrastructure, detailing the government's plans for digital identity in the UK
Mahi Sall, Advisor, Fintech-Bank Partnerships, Payments and Financial Inclusivity
January 25th, 2023
Mahi Sall is the CEO & Founder of FinXpair, a Berlin-based strategic advisory boutique firm focu[...]
Matt Warman’s speech on digital identity at Identity Week 2020
UK Government | Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | Nov 16, 2020
Opening remarks from the Minister for Digital Infrastructure, detailing the government's plans for digital identity in the UK
Good morning. It’s a great pleasure to be invited to speak at Identity Week 2020.
I truly believe that digital identity is one of the most exciting opportunities for growth and security in the UK economy, and I am excited to share my vision with you today.
Digital identity products are a vital building block for the economy of the future. They will enable smoother, cheaper, and more secure online transactions; they will simplify people’s lives, and boost business.
Digital identity solutions can also ensure that people have greater control of their identity data, and provide greater security and privacy standards.
See: FFCON Week 5 Wrap-up: Digital Identity & Convergence Marketplaces
It has the capacity to allow more people to open a bank account, to allow more people to start a new job faster, and to improve the safety and security of travel both within and beyond the UK — whether for business or pleasure.
Covid-19 has increased the demand for online services: 63% of people are learning a new skill online; 20% are buying groceries online; 20% are managing their money online; and 19% are now accessing health services online.
It is essential that all those in society who want to access services online are able to do so. Use of digital identity is key to unlocking this.
We want to enable the formation of a successful digital identity ecosystem in the UK so these benefits and those increased demands and expectations brought on by the pandemic can be fully realised.
The government is committed to enabling a digital identity system fit for the UK’s growing digital economy — without the need for identity cards — by working in partnership across government, the private sector, academia and civil society.
See: Tech CEOs call on political parties for policy action to drive digital economy
I want to ensure that UK values will be at the heart of this thinking to ensure that digital identity works for all who wish to use it, and that will be interoperable with as many markets and sectors as possible.
Last year we undertook a call for evidence so we could better understand the potential of digital identity to unlock the digital economy, improve user experience and access to services.
Respondents felt strongly that the government has an essential role to play in enabling secure digital identity solutions for the wider economy, and that the setting of standards is integral to this.
When we published our response to the call for evidence, we also published a set of principles that would underpin our approach to developing policy, namely: privacy; transparency; inclusivity; interoperability, proportionality; and good governance.
Security and consent underpin our approach. I don’t use these words lightly.
While we have been working with our international stakeholders to understand their approach to the development of digital identity policy, these principles have been developed deliberately and specifically to ensure that British values — your values — are the foundation upon which our digital world is built in the UK.
See: NCFA and KABN Systems North America enter multi-year exclusive partnership to promote Digital Identity in Canada
Policy on something as personal as the way in which we identify ourselves online can only be developed in this way.
By ensuring that the principles set out in our call for evidence response are at the heart of the UK’s digital identity ecosystem, those who choose to make use of a digital identity in the future will have confidence that there are measures in place to protect them.
Consumers will be assured that data confidentiality and privacy are at the centre of their digital identity and will be able to understand who, why, and when their data is being used for digital identity verification.
Over the past few months we have been working closely with experts throughout the private sector, academia and civil society to fully understand the ways we can balance these key principles, mitigate the effect of associated risks, and ensure that digital identities will truly work for those who wish to use them.
I know from my own engagement with these experts that we need agreed standards, ways of working, and a way to check they are being adhered to.
We will do this by establishing a trust framework of standards, rules, assurance and governance for the use of digital identity, in one place, that different organisations using or consuming digital identity can follow.
Such a framework would also enable people to reuse their digital identity to access a range of products and services.
See: A new denim collection gives jeans a digital identity
This trust framework will help organisations check identities and share attributes in a trusted and consistent way enabling interoperability, maintaining high levels of privacy, and increasing public confidence.
Because the foundation of this market will be based on trust, how we establish the framework is as important as what it says.
I have held a number of meetings with experts across the digital identity ecosystem — from supportive providers to hopeful private sector organisations to sceptical lobbyists. We are engaging openly with players across the ecosystem to hear your ideas — and your concerns — and incorporate them into our approach.
The development of this trust framework must be a collaborative, informed process to ensure that what we develop represents the very best of British innovation and British values.
We must also ensure that we work to enable an open, competitive market. The standards, regulations, and legislation that we are seeking to implement will not restrict innovation but, instead, will enable the implementation of safe and secure solutions that work for business and society alike.
This unique approach — building on lessons of those who have gone before us and developing an approach that works for the UK — will be critical in making us the world’s leading digital economy.
We are keen to engage with our international partners too, who are developing their own rules and regulations to establish a framework that allows us all to work together.
We are exploring the ways in which we can make direct links to other markets and nations to establish and build international recognition and interoperability.
I am excited to announce that we will be publishing the digital identity Trust Framework as an alpha in the new year.
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