Whitehall shuts the front door on digital ID but leaves the back open

Britain's national digital ID scheme may be dead, but Whitehall appears to have forgotten to tell the infrastructure.

Despite the government scrapping its controversial plans, officials told MPs on Monday that work continues on GOV.UK One Login, digital wallets, and a growing collection of digital credentials designed to help people prove who they are.

The abandoned scheme was one of Keir Starmer's flagship policies, originally pitched as a compulsory digital ID card to crack down on illegal working. Privacy campaigners weren't impressed, warning of surveillance and government overreach, and ministers eventually made it voluntary before Andy Burnham, decided to bin the whole thing.

But scrapping the scheme hasn't dented Whitehall's digital identity ambitions. Officials told MPs this week that more than 80 types of documents are earmarked for the government's digital wallet, including proof of benefits, driving test certificates, and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates. That's quite a lot of paperwork for something that's supposedly dead.

The revelations came …