Britain’s national digital ID card is dead. Prime Minister Andy Burnham scrapped the scheme in July 2026, only months after taking office. But the system behind it did not stop. The government’s single sign-in service, GOV.UK One Login, now runs 264 government services, and a digital wallet for official documents is on the way. So is digital ID really gone — or has it just changed shape?
What was actually scrapped?
The plan was known as the “Brit Card”. It would have been a compulsory digital credential holding a worker’s name, nationality, date of birth, residency status and photograph. Ministers said it would make digital right-to-work checks compulsory for every new job. The Office for Budget Responsibility put the cost at about £1.8 billion between 2026-27 and 2028-29.
The plan was already softened in October 2025, when ministers dropped the compulsory element and said the scheme would be voluntary. Then, on 21 July 2026, Burnham cancelled it altogether. His spokesperson said the money saved would go “to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living”.
The card was originally sold as a tool for right-to-work checks, part of a wider shake-up of the UK immigration system. Read our explainer: UK Earned Settlement Explained: ILR Wait Doubles to 10 Years.
What survived: One Login and the wallet
The card is gone, but three pieces of the system carry on. First, GOV.UK One Login, the single account for government services online. Officials told MPs at a Public Accounts Committee hearing on 19 October that One Login already serves 264 government services, with around 500 planned within two years, and more than 23 million people use it. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport later told Forbes that over 26 million people have used it. It replaces about 44 separate ways of logging in, and HMRC is now being brought on board. The government claims £752 million in net benefits from One Login between April 2022 and August 2026.
Second, the GOV.UK Wallet, a phone wallet for official documents. More than 80 types of document are earmarked for it, including proof of benefits, driving test certificates and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates. Third, the Digital Verification Services trust framework — the rulebook that lets private firms check identity on the government’s behalf.
Proving your age in a pub
For most people, the first place this touches daily life is not a government website. It is a pub. Since 15 September 2026, pubs, bars, restaurants, music venues and shops in England and Wales can accept digital proof of age when selling alcohol. Instead of showing a driving licence or passport, a customer can use an app on their phone to confirm they are over 18 — without sharing a name, address or date of birth. Apps such as Yoti ID and Post Office EasyID can be used where businesses choose to accept them.
But nothing is compulsory: businesses do not have to accept digital proof, and customers do not have to use it. The check must come through a service certified against the government’s trust framework, not just any app or a screenshot of somebody else’s ID.
What happens next
More testing of the digital wallet is planned for December, with a national rollout of digital driving licences targeted for 2027. The One Login roadmap also lists identity checks using welfare records and open banking checks in 2027. On 21 October, the government laid a draft code before Parliament that would let public bodies share information with registered private verification firms once a new “information gateway” is switched on. The code has no statutory review clause, which worries campaigners.
Critics say the picture is confusing. Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe warned Britain could end up with digital ID “by the back door rather than the front door”. Big Brother Watch, which campaigned against the original scheme, said the dangers of a “papers please” society “have not gone away”. About 9% of people hold neither a driving licence nor a passport, MPs heard — a reminder that any digital system must leave another way in.
Officials insist the programme is closed. Susannah Storey, the permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, told MPs: “The national digital identity programme is closed.” She said One Login lets people prove who they are online, but “that is not the same as a national digital identity strategy”. Yet ministers have no published strategy, no cost estimate and no timetable for what comes next. The card was scrapped. The machinery was not.
Sources: State of Surveillance; Breaking Brexit News; The Register; Forbes; Computer Weekly.
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