While department began process of moving the new One Login system earlier this year, measures are needed to safeguard the operation of the incumbent legacy tool in the longer term
HM Revenue and Customs is seeking to work with a credit-reference agency to help verify the identity of users of Government Gateway from 2026 onwards.
At the start of this year, ministerial statements indicated that the tax agency was about to begin the process of migrating users from the 23-year-old Government Gateway to the new cross-government One Login system.
Both the outgoing service and the new sign-in tool incorporate identity-verification of users based on information provided by credit-reference agencies. One Login is working with Experian, and Government Gateway uses data from TransUnion – via a £1m contract with HMRC that concludes at the end of 2025.
The Government Digital Service – which developed One Login – last year claimed that “by 2025… the vast bulk of all central government services” will have begun using the new Whitehall-wide system.
But, as this date nears, PublicTechnology understands that HMRC does not intend to rapidly shut down Government Gateway, which has registered a total of 50 million users during its near-quarter-century in operation.
Both the tax department’s own users and services and those from other government organisations that have implemented the online accounts platform will continue to rely on the technology during a transition period that, for some, may not begin until spring 2025.
The timeline for decommissioning Government Gateway thus remains flexible with no firm shut-off date currently in place, it is understood.
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Having begun in 2016 – when a supplier was appointed to decommission the technology, which was launched in 2001 – it is a process that has already stretched out considerably further than originally expected. Government Gateway has remained in use much longer than had been anticipated because HMRC opted against implementing GDS’s previous attempt to create a new government-wide login tool: GOV.UK Verify.
For its own verification procedures, Government Gateway is, thus, expecting to implement a new commercial arrangement with a single credit-reference agency to begin at the start of 2026. HMRC is yet to launch a formal procurement process but expects to do so early next year and, in the meantime, is seeking to engage with potential suppliers via a request for information exercise that is intended “to inform our requirements and the procurement strategy”.
“Government Gateway is a cross-government service and focuses only on user authentication, allowing government organisations to take ownership of additional functions,” the department said, in a newly published commercial notice. “It is a modern standards-based platform providing credentials that citizens and organisations can use to securely access online services across government.”
The document added: “Whilst HMRC offers multiple identification verification methods, such as driving licence and/or passport checks, an identification verification service utilising credit file data and performing a subsequent credit reference check is also required. This service supports accessibility to HMRC customers who, for example, may not hold a passport or driving licence.”
Providers are advised that, should HMRC’s plans change, “the procurement may not go ahead in this and/or any format and any procurement is subject to relevant internal projects and approvals”.
