Cabinet Office seeks suggestions on proposed laws to improve data sharing throughout the public sector, in help of the UK authorities’s ambition to have a single sign-on identity-check system for all public providers
By
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Sebastian Klovig Skelton,
Senior reporter
Published: 13 Jan 2023 15:45
The Cabinet Office has launched a public session on inter-departmental data sharing in help of the UK authorities’s digital identification plans to make verification simpler on-line.
The Government Digital Service (GDS), a part of the Cabinet Office, is at the moment working with different departments to construct a single sign-on and identification checking system for all public providers.
Known as Gov.uk One Login, the three-year, £400m undertaking will substitute greater than 190 current sign-in routes and 44 separate accounts, permitting residents to show their digital identification as soon as after which reuse it to entry all authorities providers on-line through a single account. The system went into beta testing in August 2022.
However, to safely verify and share the government-held private data that will likely be utilized by the system, the federal government has proposed amending the UK’s 2017 Digital Economy Act to help the sharing of knowledge between specified public authorities for identification verification functions.
The session, which closes on 1 March 2023, is subsequently in search of views on how precisely this elevated public sector data sharing ought to work, and whether or not the measures proposed by the UK authorities could be efficient.
“Inclusion is at the heart of Gov.uk One Login,” stated Alex Burghart, parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office, in a foreword to the session. “The proposed data-sharing laws will be certain that extra folks than ever earlier than will likely be in a position to show their identification on-line and entry authorities providers, in order that anyone who desires to use on-line providers is ready to. Furthermore, the federal government is dedicated to realising the advantages of digital identification applied sciences with out creating ID playing cards.
“Gov.uk One Login and the proposed legislation will ensure the government continues to drive inclusive digital transformation, to level-up opportunities across all corners of the UK and deliver brilliant public services.”
The specified authorities that may be allowed to share data for identification verification functions embody any particular person or physique listed in Schedule 4 of the Act, similar to London borough councils, chief cops and quite a few secretaries of state.
The authorities’s proposed amended to the Act would additionally see 4 extra our bodies added to Schedule 4, together with the Cabinet Office, Department for Transport, Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
The session doc added that whereas authorities had thought of different legislative choices, there may be at the moment no laws in place particularly to allow data sharing throughout authorities for identification verification functions.
“Identity verification services currently rely on a variety of different data sharing powers and the draft regulations provide for a single piece of legislation to improve access to services by citizens,” it stated. “Government believes that these draft regulations are necessary to deliver benefits to individuals and households.”
The authorities has additionally carried out an impression evaluation of the draft data sharing laws, which it has printed a abstract of alongside the session.
It stated that quite a lot of teams are seemingly to profit from the proposed data sharing adjustments, together with folks from “low socio-economic groups”, these with disabilities and the younger.
Past failures
One of the important thing points with One Login’s predecessor, Gov.uk Verify, was that lower than half of those that tried to arrange a digital identification have been in a position to achieve this, with younger folks and disabled folks specifically dealing with disproportionate challenges.
“We identified that the legislation will reduce the need for in-person identity proofing procedures,” claimed the federal government in its impression evaluation abstract. “This will enhance the accessibility of presidency providers for people who are suffering from a incapacity, which implies they might be unable to, or discover it tough to, full an in-person verify.
“We additional recognized that the laws will profit people on low incomes who can’t afford a passport and/or driving licence, paperwork which are sometimes used to show one’s identification on-line, as they are going to be in a position to draw on a wider vary of data sources to show their identification. Additionally, younger folks, with a restricted credit score and handle historical past, can even give you the chance to entry extra data sources to confirm their identification.
“We have not identified any elements of this amendment that discriminate against any of the protected characteristics either directly or indirectly.”
Computer Weekly contacted the Cabinet Office about acquiring copies of the impression assessments, and whether or not it plans to publicly launch the paperwork to show its claims, however acquired no response.
In November 2022, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confirmed that it’s going to start migrating to the One Login platform someday in summer season 2023, which can entail transferring providers away from Government Gateway, the division’s present identification, authentication and transaction platform.
“No migration can occur until the service can meet all of our HMRC requirements to an equivalent or better standard than the existing services,” stated HMRC chief know-how and design officer Tom Skalycz on the time, including that the migration will likely be “transactional” and there will likely be no automated bulk migration.
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