The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes this week joined DSIT colleagues in meeting developers of commercial wallet systems, with further collaboration planned in the coming months, including ‘technical engagement’

The Government Digital Service and the UK’s watchdog for the use of digital-identity systems this week met with tech firms to explore how the soon-to-launch GOV.UK Wallet could integrate with commercially developed counterparts.

The state-backed wallet software will operate much like similar technologies from Google and Apple by enabling smartphone users to access, in a single place, a range of official documents. When the GOV.UK Wallet launches later this year it will include the option to store Digital Veteran Cards issued to former Armed Forces Personnel and, by the end of 2025, a digital driving licence is also set to be made available to a small number of citizens taking part in a pilot phase.

When the wallet was announced, government indicated that it was likely that officials would, in due course, engage with the likes of Apple, Google and others to explore whether government documents could be made accessible via private sector platforms.

This engagement took a significant step forward this week with an event bringing together GDS – which is developing the GOV.UK Wallet – with tech firms and the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes: a market watchdog established last year in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

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Following this event, which took place yesterday, all parties will continue to work together over the coming months to explore the possibilities of future technical integration between government and commercial identity tools, according to science, research and innovation minister Lord Patrick Vallance.

“The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA) regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders including digital verification service providers, civil society, regulators, and other experts from academia and think tanks,” he said, in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat peer Lord Tim Clement-Jones. “With regard to the GOV.UK Wallet and the mobile driving licence, OfDIA and the Government Digital Service have an event on 14 May 2025 to engage with digital verification providers on how the GOV.UK Wallet can work with and alongside private sector solutions to offer users the best experience and appropriate choice. This will be followed by technical engagement with providers in the coming months.”

OfDIA’s remit includes overseeing the government-backed digital identity trust framework and maintaining a formal register of organisations that have achieved certification – and thus attained a formal trustmark.

According to its GOV.UK site, the organisation is also tasked with “engaging internationally to support development of digital identities that are interoperable and reusable” and encouraging the market to grow in a way which supports inclusion, with the aim of making sure digital identity services can be accessed by all those who choose to use them”.