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To the consternation elsewhere in Europe, few issues in Britain cause as much controversy as the system of national identity. Opponents have long denounced ID cards as a path to Orwell’s surveillance state. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has already rejected suggestions that his Labor government should introduce digital ID cards to control immigration. But as Britain tries to reform and modernize its broken public services, despite disputes and difficulties, it would make sense to integrate a digital identity system into the plans.
Digital IDs have potential benefits far greater than the old photo IDs. Typically combining a comprehensive digital identifier with personal data and biometrics, they can be used to streamline access to public services and transactions with private companies. They can be expanded to store official documents, qualifications, membership cards and become a digital wallet. Estonia, pioneer of “e-state” that citizens can use e-identity cards for everything from ordering prescriptions to voting, he estimates the system saves 2 percent of GDP a year. Other countries such as AustraliaSingapore and Italy established digital identification schemes, either voluntary or mandatory.
Britain’s e-ID could boost public service reform — helping, for example, to integrate personal health records and patient data and simplify welfare payments. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a think-tank founded by the former prime minister (a longtime proponent of digital identity cards), assessments such a scheme could boost public finances by around £2 billion a year, mainly by reducing benefits fraud and improving tax collection, on top of wider economic gains. It is considered a voluntary system, partly built on the existing government — but low-profile — One application The initiative for a single application for state services could be launched within one parliamentary session and 90 percent of citizens would apply.
A functional digital ID could avoid searching for documents when opening bank accounts or buying a home and help prevent identity theft. Proponents argue that a national identity system could also help reduce the number of migrants in “small boats” crossing the Channel. Anecdotal evidence suggests that one of the UK’s main draws is the perception that the lack of ID cards makes it easier to disappear into the shadow economy than many of its European peers. Requiring an e-ID to access benefits and housing could disincentivize undocumented migrants and gangs of human traffickers.
There are plenty of reasons to be cautious. The right technology is essential given the sensitivities around data privacy and the risk of hacking and cyber-attacks. Britain has a dismal record in public sector IT – remember the Post Office Horizon scandal. Some Labor insiders argue the digital ID plan is too complex and politically damaging to add to the challenge of rebuilding already overstretched and cash-strapped services. Some are affected by the shame that doomed the post-9/11 national identity scheme introduced by the Blair government in much more favorable economic times.
But there are many functioning systems elsewhere that Britain can learn from or copy. Most public IT services are so outdated that it is worth trying to move to next-generation technology, as Estonia did in the 1990s. Arguments about privacy have less force when most adults happily carry smartphones packed with apps that can track everything from how many steps they take to the color of socks they buy.
Although the opposition is still vocal, moreover, a YouGov survey showed last year more than half adults in the UK who support mandatory ID cards. E-ID in the UK would require discussion and consultation. It wouldn’t be easy. But if Britain really wants a modern state, it is an idea whose moment has come.
