Parking permit applications are one of the areas where GOV.UK Verify might make a difference for councils - Photo credit: myparkingsign.com

GOV.UK Verify offers a single trusted login across all government platforms to provide people with a simple way to prove who they are online.

It was launched across central government in May, and GDS has said it now has the opportunity to push it out to local government.

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GDS to examine parking permits and taxi licensing

At a recent event in London, Michael Clark from GDS said that Warwickshre Council was one of the first to test Verify local for the application process for disabled permits.

Now, GDS is going about choosing other councils to pilot the scheme. In a blogpost published this week, Linda O’Halloran from GDS said that 30 councils had provided service information in response to a call for pilots for the local version of GOV.UK Verify.

She said that GDS was now picking the projects to run for a trial, with the first cohort being the authorities that have the capacity to work on a discovery project during 2016.

“This means they’re likely planning transformation already, so they’ll be able to work on a service with us; and they’ll have enough capacity to meet some ambitious deadlines,” O’Halloran wrote. “We’ll also be looking for authorities that will able to meet our security and data privacy standards.”

Once the authorities have been chosen, GDS will decide which services to test by looking at the business case for using Verify into the services.

After this, councils testing the same services will be asked to collaborate on discovery projects, and the aim is to demonstrate GOV.UK Verify for local services by the end of this year.

GDS said it would be publishing more details on the risk and assurance requirements for the councils that are involved in the pilot in coming months.

There are also two discovery events being held this month that will look at parking permits and taxi licensing services - O’Halloran says authorities that are interested in either of these services should sign up to the event on 15 July in London or 27 July in Bristol.