Speeches by Jones.

“No, we will provide a digital ID that will be free for people to have but only if they want to have it and use it. If they still want to use their physical passport and non-Government providers of ID verification, they are perfectly entitled to do so.”

“It is an interesting question. Digital ID is not just a login, as I say; it will be equivalent to a passport-level verification of your legal identity. At the moment, it does not exist, so we cannot put it in the list of things that will be available for the polling centre. Given the level of verification, however, it …”

“We will keep the NHS app separate from the gov.uk app, not just because it is already really quite well developed, especially after the covid pandemic, but also because it has a very clear and strong brand that people trust. People often think differently about their health data in comparison with their tax, passport o…”

“I suppose the only substantive policy clarification was on what it is that is being mandated and how digital ID will work. The consultation will ask questions about that, on the basis that we have talked about. The wider consultation will ask lots of obvious questions. If anything, it has probably just become longer th…”

“We have had a series of roundtables with different stakeholder groups. We have also been building the taskforce team that we host in the Cabinet Office. The stakeholders we have been talking to have been representatives of different views: people who are pro it and people who are currently against it; digital inclusion…”

“I am hoping that it will be next week. The actual day is moving around a little bit, but it should be next week.”

“There are a couple of reasons. First, I wanted it to not just be a technical consultation for companies that have an interest in this; I want to make sure that it is something that the public can engage in. If you did a very technical consultation, it probably would not be very user-friendly for the general public. I h…”

“The problem with that is that the One Login system works well, but you are still accessing different parts of Government with One Login. The idea with your digital ID and the gov.uk app is that those services come to you in one place, as opposed to you having to go to multiple places and log in repeatedly, if that make…”

“Good. That is great.”

“I do not have the number of users. This is something that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology runs for the Government, but as you have experienced, an increasing number of services are using the One Login system. It sounds from your experience that it was probably better than it would have been withou…”

“Not currently digitally—”

“That is exactly right.”

“Sorry—yes, we are leading it.”

“That is correct.”

“That is right.”

“Yes, they will be able to use existing documentation, but the employer would have to go through the process digitally.”

“Yes.”

“The only thing that is changing is the digital bit. At the moment, the legal burden is on the employer, when they welcome you to your new job, to check that you have the right to work, and you can use documents to do that. The thing that will change is not that framework; the only thing that will change is that the che…”

“The initial costs, yes, because at the moment we are just spending money on staff support, producing and running the consultation, drafting the legislation and bringing the Bill to the House. We will have to come back to Parliament with legislation in order to get spending authority at the point at which we start build…”

“The £1.8 billion was an Office for Budget Responsibility assessment at the last Budget. I am not clear how it came to that view. We challenged the OBR on that, but it is independent and was able to do that for itself. We are consulting in the coming months, so we do not yet know precisely what we want to build and in w…”