Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether digital ID cards will have centralised logging and verification; and whether public bodies will have access to metadata logs.

The Government has announced plans for a new digital ID to be available to UK citizens and legal residents aged 16 and over. It will be designed with privacy at its core and will follow existing industry standards for security. This includes established standards for cyber security, counter-fraud and data storage.

The new service will follow UK GDPR and privacy principles to only collect and store the minimum data required. The Government will start a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year to further inform our approach.

Following the Machinery of Government changes of 23/10/2025 policy responsibility now sits with the Cabinet Office.