Should the UK introduce a single digital ID to replace National Insurance, NHS and licence numbers?
The UK uses separate identifiers including National Insurance numbers for tax and benefits, NHS numbers for healthcare and driving licence numbers for vehicle and identity purposes. In 2025 the then government proposed a voluntary digital ID to streamline access to services and right-to-work checks but dropped the plans in July 2026 under Prime Minister Andy Burnham to prioritise cost of living measures. Multiple legacy systems and fragmented data across departments continue to require separate proofs of identity.
12 Opinions
It’s a very backwards and convoluted system, this would simplify it. The privacy concern doesn’t really hold water because this isn’t an increase in how much data the government holds on you
I've got 3 different driving cards, a passport, and an NI number to memorise. And every different hospital department seems to use their own ID verification. I've got no idea why my NI number won't cover the lot. If it was assigned at birth, it works. Oh, yeah, they'll use it to track me, but if you think they don't already use these numbers for that, you shouldn't be on the internet without a grown up...
The mission creep when coupled with a cbdc is obvious and dystopian, they sell it as a convenience but once mandatory they can pretty much turn off you access to anything at a whim also the threat of hackers or hostile states accessing a centralised database isn’t a small thing either
I was in two minds about this - for me there needs to be a biometric element. My reasons for this are to avoid fraud. There are far too many dishonest people in this country. I would happily be a no if that weren’t the case.
If that helped services work together better rather than having to pass endless paper
Why does my GP need to know my NI number, why does the taxman need to know my driving licence number, why does the DVLA need to know my NHS number? Simple government overreach, leaving everyone vulnerable to the inevitable hacks and leaks to nefarious organisations (or legitimate (!) Use outfits that needs to know everything about you).
Better if the various departments talked to each other. Having paper proof may be old fashioned, but you'd need to have all the documents if your real existence was questioned. Mind you one card that confirms I'm me sounds good. It would cost a great deal of money to get it done, so I'm saying no, this is not the right time, the UK needs to be much calmer and settled first.
Sweet dream of overreaching control of governments and thieves. ID needs to be material, digital version is not safe. I am assuming digital IDea is live and kicking among the powers that be, along with CBDC and other social credit score inventions. NWO will not build itself.
How many times are they going to revisit this digital ID plan, repackaging it in different ways when the end result will be the same. Complete control over our lives from governments that should never be trusted.. A quicker route to the dystopian and authoritarian future we are on course for but nobody has chosen or voted for.
In future, we we will wonder why this wasn't done sooner. All ID is by phone and biometric now. And the Govt already has the database.