Digital driving licences are to be introduced in the UK as the government looks to use technology to \u201ctransform public services\u201d.<\/p>\n
They will be accessed on a new government smartphone app and could be accepted as a form of ID when buying alcohol, voting, or boarding domestic flights.<\/p>\n
Physical licences will still be issued, but ministers believe the voluntary digital option will \u201cdrag government into the 2020s,\u201d according to The Times.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson told BBC News: \u201cThis government is committed to using technology to make people\u2019s lives easier and transform public services.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology now makes it possible for digital identities to be more secure than physical ones, but we remain clear that they will not be made mandatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The virtual licences could be used at supermarket self checkouts,\u00a0the Times said,\u00a0allowing customers to verify their own age without waiting for a member of staff.<\/p>\n
The new digital licences will be introduced later this year, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
A possible feature could allow users to hide their address in certain situations, such as in bars or shops.<\/p>\n
There were more than 50 million driving licence holders in the UK in 2023, according to\u00a0government data.<\/p>\n
The digital licences are likely to be launched as part of a \u201cwallet\u201d within a new government app called Gov.uk.<\/p>\n
The wallet is understood to be secured in a similar way to many banking apps, and would only allow the genuine owner of a licence to access it.<\/p>\n
It will use features found on many smartphones, such as biometrics and multifactor authentication, like security codes.<\/p>\n
The government is said to be considering integrating other services into the app, such as tax payments and benefits claims.<\/p>\n
Other forms of identification, such as national insurance numbers, could also be added \u2013 but it is not thought physical identification will be replaced entirely.<\/p>\n
The new technology appears to stop short of being a broad digital ID card \u2013 as\u00a0previously called for by Sir Tony Blair and Lord William Hague.<\/p>\n
At the time, the head of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said such a move \u201cwould be one of the biggest assaults on privacy ever seen in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2016, the then-boss of the UK\u2019s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said\u00a0digital licences were being developed.<\/p>\n
Virtual licences are already in use in Australia, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, as well as some US states.<\/p>\n
In the European Union, every member state is required to introduce at least one form of digital ID by 2026.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Digital driving licences are to be introduced in the UK as the government looks to use technology to \u201ctransform public services\u201d. They will be accessed on a new government smartphone app and could be accepted as a form of ID when buying alcohol, voting, or boarding domestic flights. Physical licences will still be issued, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}