The UK authorities goes to launch an app that may permit residents to digitize their driver’s licenses. Science Secretary Peter Kyle introduced on Tuesday that the GOV.UK Pockets launching for Android and iOS units later this yr will let customers securely retailer government-issued paperwork on their cellphone, permitting them to be accessed instantly as an alternative of ready for bodily variations to reach within the mail.
The pockets will make the most of smartphone security measures like facial recognition to assist shield customers’ private information. Veteran playing cards for former army personnel would be the first paperwork supported, adopted by a pilot for cellular driver’s licenses “later in 2025.” All UK authorities companies that present paper or card credentials will likely be anticipated to supply a digital different by 2027. Conventional bodily paperwork will nonetheless be obtainable.
“Together with CDs, the Walkman, and flip telephones, the overflowing drawer rammed with letters from the federal government and hours spent on maintain to get a primary appointment will quickly be consigned to historical past,” Kyle mentioned within the announcement. “GOV.UK Pockets will imply that each letter or id doc you obtain from the federal government may very well be issued to you just about.”
In response to Kyle, the brand new digital pockets app is meant to offer UK residents extra management over their very own information, making it simpler to show eligibility for welfare advantages and buy age-restricted merchandise in shops. Individuals within the UK are presently required to current bodily id paperwork (if assumed to be underage) when clubbing or buying alcohol, working the chance of getting them misplaced or stolen.
The UK can be launching a brand new GOV.UK app in summer season 2025 that may permit customers to entry authorities data, and, finally, full duties like canceling stolen passports and making use of for welfare advantages from their telephones.
There are additionally plans so as to add an AI-powered chatbot, imaginatively known as “GOV.UK Chat,” to the app, which Fintech stories was co-developed by OpenAI, and so as to add “methods to make funds and obtain well timed notifications” for presidency companies.
