LONDON — Britain’s UK digital ID plan is a cautious first step that risks locking the country into fragmented, vendor-led systems, Chatham House argued in a new analysis, Dec. 25, 2025. The think tank says the UK should instead publish a clearer national blueprint for “digital public infrastructure” built on open standards, interoperability and security-by-design, taking cues from Ukraine’s Diia ecosystem.
In a Chatham House article for The World Today, researchers warn that weak coordination can leave critical services dependent on proprietary platforms and vulnerable to geopolitical coercion or cyber risks, while doing little to improve citizen experience across agencies.
Why the UK digital ID plan is under fire
The UK digital ID plan is built around GOV.UK One Login and a forthcoming GOV.UK Wallet, which the government says will allow people to store and present government-issued documents on a phone. The official GOV.UK Wallet page says the app is not yet available to download, but a digital veteran card can already be saved through the GOV.UK One Login app, with more documents expected later.
Chatham House argues that this approach is still “too timid” without a stronger, openly published architecture that specifies how identity, payments and data-sharing rails should connect across the public sector and with regulated private services. A wider “digital public infrastructure” approach, it says, can reduce duplication, enable competition on top of shared rails and improve resilience through auditability and sovereign control of core components.
Parliament’s research service notes that the government is pursuing multiple digital identity strands in parallel — including One Login and the wallet — alongside a separate mandatory scheme announced in 2025, all of which interact with the wider UK digital ID plan. See the House of Commons Library briefing, Digital ID in the UK.
Diia as a model — and a warning
Chatham House points to Ukraine’s Diia as proof that digital identity can be more than a “card on a phone” when it is part of a wider platform for delivering services and securely sharing data. Ukraine’s government showcases the ecosystem’s scope — including digital documents and online services — through its official Diia “Digital State” portal.
But the think tank also stresses that high-trust systems depend on governance: clear rules on privacy, strong cybersecurity, transparent standards and redress when things go wrong. Without that, critics say the UK digital ID plan could inflame long-running civil liberties concerns.
What changes Chatham House wants next for the UK digital ID plan
Chatham House is urging ministers to publish a stronger national blueprint that commits the UK digital ID plan to open standards, interoperability and “public interest” design, so departments and local authorities do not build new silos. It also calls for a clearer security posture and stronger transparency over how identity data is shared and audited.
The debate is not new. The government began shaping rules for trusted digital identity providers years ago, including early versions of the digital identity and attributes trust framework. In 2023, officials framed the effort as enabling people to prove who they are without relying on physical documents in guidance on digital identities in the UK.
Ukraine’s own push also predates the war: in 2021, the Atlantic Council described legislation giving e-passports legal standing as a milestone in building a “digital state, ” in an analysis of Ukraine’s e-passport status. Chatham House argues the UK now has an opportunity to match that level of ambition — while setting a higher bar on openness and safeguards — before its UK digital ID plan becomes hard to change.
