On the 23rd February, the Government Digital Service (GDS) held the first of a series of events to reach out to Local Government to understand how ‘Citizen Identity’ could be used to transform local public services, and in particular how GOV.UK Verify might fit.

The GOV.UK Verify service is due to go live from April 2016 for some government services, providing an ‘assurance level 2’ in the identity of a person.  Using GOV.UK Verify for local government services could re-use an assured identity where that already exists.

GDS are keen to

  • understand local government transformation plans, and identity needs
  • estimate Local Government readiness to engage with GOV.UK Verify

At this time of this session, the service had a choice of 4 certified companies who could assure identity, this has now been expanded to the following 8:

  • Experion
  • Verizon
  • Digidentity
  • Post Office
  • Barclays
  • SecureIdentity
  • Citizen Safe
  • Royal Mail

GDS colleagues presented material about how GOV.UK Verify works, and and some illustrative customer journeys accessing government services.

Ian Litton from Warwickshire County Council, further presented on the potential benefits to Local Authorities, emphasising:

  • Citizen Account
  • Single ID for Citizens
  • Platform approach – reducing risk and cost
  • An ecosystem of ‘Trust’ providing access to data from other public sector sources
  • Attribute Exchange

Ian presented an example of Applying for a Blue Badge in which attributes and data from DWP, and DVLA was assessed having signed-on, and given consent.

 

Issues for Local Authorities

  • At this stage, the cost to Local Government of registering new identities, and using the service are unknown.
  • Level of Assurance – Is Level 2 sufficient for Local Authority services?  Can Local Authorities agree on the right level of assurance for each service?
  • Working with suppliers of solutions to Local Authorities
  • Personal Data Stores – where attributes are verified by trusted organisations, which might include NiNo 
  • Employee Authentication

 

Resources:

Cabinet office & GDS – Citizen identity needs for local authority services workshop

Warwickshire County Council – Why verify matters to local authorities

Verify prototype screenshots February 2016

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