Draft Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) (Identity Verification Services) Regulations 2023

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 13th December 2023 General Committees

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Sir Gary. I will indicate at the start that I do not intend to divide the Committee nor to detain it for very long, because the Opposition support the principle of using data to improve public services, to improve Government services for citizens and our constituents, and to drive public sector productivity. We therefore support these measures.

I just have a few questions that I hope the Minister can briefly answer for us this morning. He rightly mentioned the controversies and those who will be concerned that this is a move to some form of ID card. I do not agree with that objection but none the less, as I am sure he and many members of the Committee will be aware, the issue can arouse strong feelings in some parts of the country. Will he reassure us about what processes will be in place for complaints from individuals about how their personal data is used? How will Departments obtain consent from users when they are sharing data between public bodies? How will Ministers monitor that?

I believe that the changes are key to unlocking productivity gains across the public sector and Government services. Have the Government scored any productivity improvements? Over what timeline does the Minister think that we could be reaping benefits from the changes?

I totally endorse the Government’s objective to move to the One Login system. I think they have promised that 150 public services will be using the GOV.UK One Login system by 2025. I would be grateful for an update on to what extent we are on track to hit that target. How many have already moved? As I say, if the Minister does not have the detailed answers, I would be very happy for him to write to me, but we support his endeavours today.