UK expected to introduce digital driving licences

The Government is aiming to introduce digital driving licences this year as it aims to use technology to “transform public services”.

The new digital driving licences will be available in a virtual wallet in a new Government app, with it also becoming an accepted form of ID for buying alcohol or voting.

The wallet will be secured in a similar way to banking apps and will only allow the genuine owner of a licence to access it.

It will use features found on many smartphones, such as biometrics and multifactor authentication, like security codes.

Physical licences, however, will still be issued and the new digital driving licence will not be mandatory.

“This Government is committed to using technology to make people's lives easier and transform public services,” said a spokesperson.

“Technology now makes it possible for digital identities to be more secure than physical ones, but we remain clear that they will not be made mandatory.”

The voluntary digital option is to be introduced later this year, according to the Times.

There were more than 34 million full driving licence holders in England in 2023. 

The Government is considering integrating other services into the app, such as tax payments, benefits claims and other forms of identification such as national insurance numbers.

However, the new app appears to stop short of being a compulsory digital ID card, which was previously called for by Sir Tony Blair.

At the time, the head of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said such a move “would be one of the biggest assaults on privacy ever seen in the UK”.

Virtual licences are already in use in Australia, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, as well as some US states.

In the European Union, every member state is required to introduce at least one form of digital ID by 2026.