The government will consult on whether children aged between 13 and 16-years-old should be included in the digital ID roll-out.
There has been a backlash to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that a UK-wide digital ID scheme will be introduced before 2029, with a petition attracting nearly three million signatures.
An official response to that petition confirmed the consultation will also consider whether to make digital ID available to children aged 13 years old and up.
Under the government plans, digital ID will be available to all UK citizens and legal residents but only mandatory in order to work. It will be optional for students, pensioners or others not seeking work.
The UK Parliament petition opposes the creation of any national ID system and demands the government ditch its plans, which petitioners claim “would be a step towards mass surveillance and digital control”.
The number of signatures means the issue will be debated by MPs in the coming weeks and has also received an official government response, confirming plans to introduce digital ID “to help tackle illegal migration, make accessing government services easier, and enable wider efficiencies”.
The statement says: “This is not a card but a new digital identity that will be available for free to all UK citizens and legal residents aged 16 and over (although we will consider through consultation if this should be age 13 and over).
“Over time, people will be able to use it to seamlessly access a range of public and private sector services, with the aim of making our everyday lives easier and more secure.
“It will not be compulsory to obtain a digital ID but it will be mandatory for some applications.”
Defending the plans to consider the inclusion of 13 to 16-year-olds in the scheme, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told LBC: “Everybody has forms of digital ID… We all have different ways of having to prove who we are.
“Lots of 13-year-olds already do [have a form of digital ID], and what the department is going to be consulting on is exactly how that should be taken forward.
“I do think that this is the right way forward, to have this standardised process now, and it’s something that we had been already setting out for people who come to work from abroad.”
However, civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch branded the scheme “Orwellian” and urged MPs to reject plans.
Director Silkie Carlo said: “The prospects of enrolling even children into this sprawling biometric ID system is sinister, unjustified and prompts the chilling question of just what Starmer’s government think the digital ID will be used for in the future.
“At a time when parents are taking a critical view of whether children should have smartphones, it is shocking that the government is considering enroling children into this digital ID app.
“We now know that digital IDs could be used for everything from tax and benefits to banking and education — it has all the hallmarks of a sprawling national database that Britain has long rejected.”
The Liberal Democrats said the consultation on offering digital ID to 13-year-olds showed they had been right to warn about “mission creep”.
“It’s frankly sinister, unnecessary, and a clear step towards state overreach,” said the party’s science and technology spokesperson Victoria Collins.
During a trip to India this week, Sir Keir praised the country’s Aadhaar digital ID system, which is far more extensive than the plans initially announced for the UK and involves the storing of biometric data, as a “massive success”.
He signalled Britain could use the technology for services like banking, pointing to New Delhi’s scheme as an example, and said ministers must “make the case” for the “huge benefits” the scheme could offer.
No 10 said Britain’s system would not necessarily copy India’s biometric data usage and signalled the UK scheme would be run by the public sector.
Other countries that already have digital ID systems include Estonia, Demark and Spain, as well as Canada, Australia and Japan.
The European Union is introducing the Digital Identity (eID) Wallet, which all member states will be required to roll out to citizens by the end of 2026.
Digital ID schemes are also being piloted in non-EU countries Norway, Iceland, and Ukraine.