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Gov.uk Wallet open to public sector bodies

Government departments can soon begin to add documents to Gov.uk Wallet, as the Government Digital Service publishes guidance for public sector bodies on how to use the smartphone app

Lis Evenstad
By
Published: 29 May 2025 10:45

The government has issued guidance for public sector organisations interested in using Gov.uk Wallet, as it prepares to go live with the app.

According to the guidance, the platform will be available to all public sector organisations once it is launched.

However, in the first instance, only central government departments will be able to add documents to the wallet, while other public organisations such as the NHS and local authorities will only be able to use information already on it.

Government services will be able to “securely save a digital document” produced by them, update and remove documents, or “prove a user’s eligibility for a service using other departments’ documents”, according to the guidance.

The wallet will initially include a digital version of driving licences and HM Armed Forces Veterans Cards, with more documents being added regularly. By the end of 2027, the aim is for the wallet to include every government-issued credential, including a digital version of passports.

The guidance encouraged departments to think about what documents they may want to add to the wallet, and which information they’d be interested in getting from it.

“If you’re a central government department, let us know if you have a document that you’d like your users to add to Gov.uk Wallet,” the guidance said. “We can discuss next steps and answer any questions you may have.”

Read more about government and digital identity:

  • Following concerns from the digital identity industry that Gov.uk Wallet would dominate the market, the government has offered private sector providers a ‘critical role’ in its future, as it revealed further details on the wallet.
  • The government’s flagship digital identity system has lost its certification against the government’s own digital identity system trust framework.
  • A driving licence in an app is a boost for digital identity – but not for angry suppliers: It’s rare that a digital government development attracts interest from mainstream media, but the announcement of a digital driving licence brought widespread national coverage.

The planned Gov.uk Wallet has caused concerns among the digital identity industry that the wallet will dominate the market and push private providers out.

Industry felt blindsided by the launch of the wallet, which led to a meeting between government officials and industry representatives. The government has offered the private sector two potential roles as part of the digital identity provider, either as an orchestration service provider, or as an identity service provider or holder service provider.

The original Gov.uk Wallet announcement created chaos in the digital ID sector, including leading to industry calling on government to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which includes legislation to help the widespread use of digital identity tools supported by government data.

One Login

The wallet is underpinned by the Gov.uk One Login digital identity platform, meaning that any organisation wishing to use the wallet must already be using the identity platform.

The One Login service has recently come under scrutiny over concerns around security.

As previously reported by Computer Weekly, in April 2025, the Government Digital Service (GDS) was warned by the Cabinet Office and the National Cyber Security Centre that its One Login digital identity system had “serious data protection failings” and “significant shortcomings” in information security that could increase the risk of data breaches and identity theft.

Problems were subsequently confirmed by an internal investigation led by GDS’s chief information security officer – but when, soon after, an MP wrote to the Cabinet Office to enquire about potential issues around the information security of One Login, GDS did not mention any of the warnings in its response.

In May 2025, Computer Weekly also revealed that external security tests on the digital identity systems found serious vulnerabilities in the live service, as IT security consultancy Cyberis discovered access to One Login can be compromised without detection by security monitoring tools.

The government guidance said that any documents added to the wallet “will be bound to the proven identity linked to a user’s Gov.uk One Login”.

“That means, for now, a user can only save their own documents in their Gov.uk Wallet,” the guidance added. “For security, these digital documents will be stored locally on a user’s phone.”

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