What are the pros and cons of digital identity cards?

The prime minister is said to be “seriously considering” a national system of digital identification, both to make it easier to access online services, including government ones, and to clamp down on illegal working by irregular migrants.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Given the push to introduce artificial intelligence in so many areas of our lives, it may be an idea whose time has come. But there are political, as well as practical, complications.

What is digital ID?

It would in essence be a virtual ID card, and using it in the existing, and enhanced, Government Gateway would make it easier for people to manage everything from tax records and social security entitlements to driving licences, education, citizenship and probate - a vast array of areas in which the individual has dealings with the state. It could also be used, as a passport or driving licence is now, to help with all sorts of other activities, such as banking or getting a job.

There is a separate, and obviously sensitive, question about whether digital ID should also encompass someone’s medical history, voluntarily or otherwise.

Why digital ID now?

According to the briefings, the aim is to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of the government machine, so that, for example, people don’t have to spend hours on hold when contacting a government agency. Unavoidably, though, it is also a way to detect people who shouldn’t be in the country or working in the UK. That, the theory goes, means less of a “pull factor” for certain sorts of migrant.

Would it work?

In a sense it is working already, in that almost everyone must have a unique tax reference, a national insurance number, a driving licence number, an NHS number and so on, and can, if they wish, share this information with others. But at the moment the system is compartmentalised and clunky, even if more and more interactions are taking place online and with chatbots.

What stage are we at?