Announced today, Britcard will not be the exclusive form of ID permitted to prove the right to work in the UK.
The UK government committed to making its proposed BritCard system mandatory specifically for Right to Work checks, whilst they were billed for everyone else as voluntary. It has now styled a U-turn on its mandatory pledge, as its digital ID will not be unique for these checks.
The proposal was met with some controversy for referencing a centralised database of people entitled to live and work in the UK that critics have slammed as being an attractive prospect for “enormous hacking targets”. Jonni Brennan, President of the DTIAC, commented on the learnings from BritCard when it was announced in September, saying “how we build digital trust and identity systems matters as much as whether we build them”.
She said: “These concerns aren’t theoretical. Centralised identity databases have been compromised in multiple jurisdictions, impacting millions of individuals. Once compromised, the consequences include identity theft, widespread fraud, and erosion of public trust that takes years to rebuild”.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to mandatory digital right to work checks” for employers, whilst the government has had a change of heart about workers to keep voters on side, calling it a “tweak” before the first public consultation launches.
