GOV.UK Verify passes the test

23 May 2016

GOV.UK Verify has so far been trialled across ten services in six government departments, which includes the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), HMRC, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

GOV.UK Verify aims to cut out the face-to-face verification work by allowing citizens to prove who they are online just once and then use that identity across a range of government services.

In a recent speech Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock revealed the news that the flagship GOV.UK Verify had passed its service assessment and was due to go live “Privacy or cyber security are nothing without reliable verification of identity. So I’m delighted to announce that GOV.UK Verify has passed its service assessment and will go live next week.”

In her blog Janet Hughes, programme director for Verify looked to further define the impact this would have on users and departments and provide a measure of reassurance as Verify switches from beta to live.

“It won’t be a dramatic change in what GOV.UK Verify looks like, and it certainly doesn’t mean we’ve finished developing the service,” she said.

“It means we’ve met the standard required of digital by default services — rightly a tough standard to meet. Users can be assured that GOV.UK Verify is safe, secure, easily improved and meets user needs.”

“It means we’re ready for larger-scale adoption by departments - we’ve got a lot of services in our pipeline preparing to start using GOV.UK Verify over the next year (it will be a gradual, careful, ongoing process, not a ‘big bang’ switchover) and we’ll be posting more about that shortly.”

Government Digital Services (GDS) will continue work to “iterate and improve” the service in response to feedback to make the service as simple and straightforward as possible for users.

Government services that can be used with GOV.UK Verify