The UK government announced a major “machinery of government change” that moves overall responsibility for its controversial national digital ID scheme from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to the Cabinet Office.
The announcement details a new governance structure intended to centralize control of the high-priority project. The Cabinet Office, led by Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones, will now assume control of “policy development, legislation and strategic oversight.” The DSIT, led by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, will retain responsibility for the “technical design, build and delivery” of the ID.
This move is a direct political response to the disastrous public reception of the digital ID’s announcement in September. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plan, branded “BritCard,” was met with immediate backlash for its core contradiction: the ID was pitched as “voluntary” for convenience but “mandatory” for all Right to Work checks.
This “voluntary but mandatory” framing, aimed at tackling illegal migration, caused public support for digital ID to collapse from a net +35% in the summer to a net -14%, according to polling reported by The Times of India. A petition to scrap the plan has since garnered over 2.9 million signatures. The government’s structural change separates the “technical build” from the “political policy,” centralizing the volatile messaging and legislative strategy directly under the Prime Minister’s office to manage the failing narrative.
The Prime Minister is now on a public relations offensive to “win back public support.” On the same day as the reshuffle announcement, Starmer visited a Barclays branch in Brighton to promote the “convenience” aspect of the ID, telling staff it would help “cut the faff.” He also made defensive promises, telling the BBC, “You’ll never need ID to get into a hospital or anything like that,” and insisting it would not be used for surveillance.
The new structure bypasses the Government Digital Service (GDS), which sits under DSIT and manages the existing GOV.UK One Login and GOV.UK Wallet. GDS will remain a technical partner, but the Cabinet Office will now lead the overall strategy. Darren Jones stated the goal is to add the Cabinet Office’s “capacity for coordination” to DSIT’s “technical expertise” to build the “foundations of a modern state.”
The move comes as the UK continues to grapple with concerns about cloud infrastructure resilience and has been developing guidance for digital ID use in AML compliance.
Sources: UK Government; The Guardian
–
By Cass Kennedy
