Digital driving licences are to be presentd in the UK as the regulatement sees to engage technology to “alter unveil services”.
They will be accessed on a novel regulatement inalertigentphone app and could be accomprehendledgeed as a create of ID when buying liquor, voting, or boarding domestic fairys.
Physical licences will still be publishd, but ministers think the voluntary digital chooseion will “drag regulatement into the 2020s,” according to The Times.
A regulatement spokesperson tbetter BBC News: “This regulatement is promiseted to using technology to produce people’s dwells easier and alter unveil services.
“Technology now produces it possible for digital identities to be more safe than physical ones, but we remain evident that they will not be made obligatory.”
The virtual licences could be engaged at superlabelet self examineouts, the Times said, permiting customers to validate their own age without paengageing for a member of staff.
The novel digital licences will be presentd tardyr this year, the novelspaper telled.
A possible feature could permit engagers to hide their includeress in certain situations, such as in bars or shops.
There were more than 50 million driving licence hbetterers in the UK in 2023, according to regulatement data.
The digital licences are probable to be started as part of a “wallet” wiskinny a novel regulatement app called Gov.uk.
The wallet is understood to be safed in a analogous way to many prohibitking apps, and would only permit the genuine owner of a licence to access it.
It will engage features set up on many inalertigentphones, such as biometrics and multifactor genuineation, appreciate security codes.
The regulatement is said to be pondering integrating other services into the app, such as tax payments and profits claims.
Other creates of identification, such as national insurance numbers, could also be includeed – but it is not thought physical identification will be traded enticount on.
The novel technology stops low of becoming a expansive digital ID card – as previously called for by Sir Tony Blair and Lord William Hague.
At the time, the head of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said such a shift “would be one of the hugegest attacks on privacy ever seen in the UK”.
In 2016, the then-boss of the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said digital licences were being enbiged.
Virtual licences are already in engage in Australia, Denlabel, Iceland and Norway, as well as some US states.
In the European Union, every member state is needd to present at least one create of digital ID by 2026.