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The Labour government is paving the way to further scale back its digital ID proposals, such as excluding children and some personal data from the scheme, as it tries to make the controversial policy more palatable to the British public.
Chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones launched a nationwide consultation into the digital ID scheme on Tuesday, announcing that one of the key questions it would consider was what age people should be when they are able to get their ID.
Ministers have been considering following the Estonian model where newborn babies are assigned a unique number from birth that parents can use to manage digital records, as well as make appointments and fill out applications online.
Other questions the consultation will examine are what data it would be useful for the app to contain and which government services should be accessible from the app.
Ministers say digital ID should include name, date of birth, nationality and a facial image for biometrics. However, a consultation suggests other data such as address and biological sex could be excluded.
The acknowledgment that plans for digital ID could be watered down comes after a succession of tweaks and alterations to the proposals — and the way it is being presented to the British public — since it was first announced in September of last year.
Ministers are hoping to sell the scheme as making “government by app” more convenient to voters and as a tool that could be used to improve a wide range of public services. Consultation documents also ask whether it should be used in the private sector for taking out loans, buying homes or proving age for buying alcohol.
Announcing the launch of plans for digital ID last September, by contrast, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described it as a tool to control illegal immigration by making it impossible to work without one.
In January, Starmer also retreated on plans to make digital ID mandatory for all workers in the UK, allowing people to offer other types of digital proof of their right to work such as passports.
Police will not be able to ask people to present digital ID for purposes such as stop and search.
A recent poll conducted by research company Ipsos found that about 40 per cent of the public opposed digital ID, while 32 per cent supported it and 29 per cent had no opinion.
“When the public voted for change they also voted for better public services and this is what Labour governments at their best are all about,” Jones said as he launched the consultation in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
“We will debate the difficult questions, find ways forward and build a system that can secure the trust and support of everyone.”
There has been unease inside the government about the scope of the digital ID scheme, with several senior officials arguing that ministers needed to make a more positive case around the public utility of the electronic system rather than its role in simply penalising people who are not legally allowed to work.
Jones also announced on Tuesday that the government would establish a so-called People’s Panel on digital ID that would bring together individuals from across the country and from different backgrounds to provide their views on the proposals.
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