Government reveals plans for a 'one stop' app for accessing GOV.UK

Seeks to build on increased public acceptance of apps during the pandemic

The government yesterday unveiled plans for a smartphone app to be used as a single access point for multiple government services.

A press release published jointly by the Cabinet Office, Government Digital Service (GDS), the Central Digital and Data Office and Steve Barclay MP, says the new app will make it more convenient for people to access government services online without having to go through numerous login processes.

Use of the app will be optional, the government says, and people will still be able to login separately to individual services if they so wish.

It points out that there are currently 191 ways for citizens to set up accounts on GOV.UK and 44 different sign in methods.

"During the pandemic, people have had to interact with public services in a variety of new ways, including the NHS app and the vaccine booking service," Barclay, who succeeded Michael Gove as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office last month, said in the press release.

"People rightly expect government to be data driven and digitally literate, and this will be a priority for me in my new role."

See also: Towards a single digital identity

According to the government, the app, the development of which is being managed by GDS, will have "data security at its heart, with robust data protection principles in place to make sure users remain in control of their data".

However, no details have yet been released about how this will be achieved architecturally, or how it might tie in with other government ventures such as ID cards for voting.

So far at least, though, the app programme seems to be separate from such projects.

In the comments section of a blog post from September outlining the purported benefits of the One Login system behind the app, the GDS team responds to a question about vaccine passports and ID cards, saying: "We are not building a national ID or similar scheme. What we are trying to build is closer to having an online login for your bank account, which enables access to all the bank's services, rather than having to create separate accounts to apply for a loan, credit card or other service a bank might provide."

And in February the government released a draft digital identity framework saying it is committed to solving problems of identity theft and fraud but without the need for a national identity card.

Nevertheless, there are valid concerns about mission creep, as when facial recognition software from iProov was quietly added to the NHS app without details of the contract or how the data collected would be used and shared being officially published.

And with so much sensitive personal data stored in and accessible by such an app, its security credentials will be paramount. Unlike with the NHS Covid-19 app, the data will presumably be stored in a centralised database. Where will the data be stored, who will have access? As ever, the devil will be in the (as yet unavailable) details.

The UK, with its historical antipathy to national IDs and government departments that often act like separate fiefdoms, has long struggled to achieve an acceptable balance right between convenience, trust and control when it comes to digital identity and access to services online. The previous GOV.UK Verify scheme failed through lack of public interest and because key departments like HMRC refused to play ball. The current furore over vaccine passports and voter IDs won't make obtaining this balance any easier.