Online security key to proposed public data hub, Cabinet Office says

The Government is currently developing a new system that will allow the public to use public services online, the Cabinet Office said. Plans include establishing an 'identity assurance programme', it said.

 "We need better ways of establishing trust relationships in the digital era," a Cabinet Office blog said.

"We need better security than long lists of user names and favourite films. Our aim is to collectively address these problems through the Government's Digital Service Identity Assurance Programme," the blog said.

Details of the proposed identity assurance scheme were revealed to OUT-LAW by privacy campaigners earlier this year.

No2ID, a group that campaigns against Government databases, said it believed the Government is planning to build a single online system that the public can use to access public services.

Guy Herbert, the organisation's general secretary, said he had been consulted on some aspects of the proposals for what is being called the 'ID assurance scheme' but remained concerned about how the Government planned to store the public's data.

The scheme would allow the public to log in to a central online hub to use Government services, but the information stored would be kept by private firms, Herbert said.

"[The Government] appear to be suggesting that they will recruit third party providers [to retain the public's personal information]," Herbert said. "Their credentials would be passed on to the relevant Government department and that would give someone access to the related services. It seems fraught with all sorts of difficulties in that it does not provide a description of what will be done with the information," Herbert said.

The Government is currently working on a prototype for the ID assurance scheme that could see a system in use from next year, Herbert said.

The Cabinet Office said that it had begun the "beta" stage in developing a central domain where all Government information online will exist. It said it was acting on the recommendations made in a report published last year by the UK's Digital Champion Martha Lane-Fox.

"Running over 400 Government websites as individual sites just doesn’t make sense – least of all economic sense," Francis Maude, Cabinet Office Minister, said in a statement.

"Martha Lane-Fox was clear in her review that people shouldn’t have to wade through the complex structure of Government to find what they need – and today’s announcement of the beta release takes us one step closer to a single government domain. This will not only make it easier for the public to find what they but it will also be better value for taxpayers, as this project could lead to annual savings of £65 million," Maude said.

"We have been clear that the days of vanity websites are over – we have radically reduced the number of existing websites and introduced strict rules for those that remain.  We believe that Government use of the web must not only be useful, it must be cost-effective," Maude said.

The public will be able to test the new test website early next year and a final decision on "the future of the project" will be taken after the testing is over, the Cabinet Office said.