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UK Announces Digital Wallet for IDs and Driver's Licenses
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Somebody already did, see below (Road Traffic Act 1988):
The .GOV website says otherwise:
If you’re stopped, the police can ask to see your:
If you do not have these documents with you, you have 7 days to take them to a police station. You’re breaking the law if you do not show the requested documents within 7 days.
- driving licence
- insurance certificate
- MOT certificate
Being stopped by the police while driving
What happens if you're stopped by the police while driving - breath tests, motoring offences, faults with your vehicle, seizing your vehiclewww.gov.uk
Of course not. It would be insane to do so, and thankfully for the UK this insanity isn’t one of the issues we have.
But if you read the RTA (section 164 part 8) it states that producing them at a station within 7 days is a defence against proceedings against a driver for failure to produce.
The failure to produce offence has still occurred. They could start proceedings against a driver for failing to produce and leave it up to them to produce documents. However sensibly, it’s always done in reverse where you get the 7 days, then they proceed.
I guess I was trying to be a bit pedantic with my earlier comments.
That is not the RTA. The actual RTA states.
“
8)In proceedings against any person for the offence of failing to produce a licence it shall be a defence for him to show that—
(a)within seven days after the production of his licence was required he produced it in person at a police station that was specified by him at the time its production was required, or
(b)he produced it in person there as soon as was reasonably practicable, or
(c)it was not reasonably practicable for him to produce it there before the day on which the proceedings were commenced,”
The failure to produce has occurred. Producing later is a defence allowed for in the RTA. The police in the UK do not start proceedings immediately, though theoretically there’s nothing stopping them starting proceedings and leaving it up to the driver to produce then defend in court.
Having a defence does not mean the failure to produce offence did not occur. It did.
Which was the extent of what I stated. I did not say or intend to infer that it would actually ever happen.
Sorry, I am not interested in going down that rabbit hole. We know what happens and you're not going to get prosecuted for not carrying your license and insurance, even if there might be wording that leaves that as a possibility. It doesn't happen so I'll leave it as that.
It states you have defence against proceedings.Road Traffic Act 1988
www.legislation.gov.uk
Which infers that the offence has to be committed for you to defend against proceedings.
I’m not disagreeing at all, and never have disagreed with this.
I think something so critical to our country I'm not sure I'd want to be dependent on a foreign private company that I cant control to administer it. In fact I could use that philosophy for so many national services in the UK that were sold off by Thatcher and have seen terrible service ever since with no way of solving it.
This is a strategic move, not a financial one as most things that benefit the country should be.
Also, I'm guess it will use both the apple wallet and the govt app, but the govt app will be the fall back.
which is why i said "currently set to 7 days", which they consider reasonable otherwise it wouldn't be set to 7 days.
Personally, this has made my day! I've been wallet less for a couple of years now but the one thing I've still had to carry loose in my pocket is my license and I've always been jealous of the US states that can have them in their Apple wallets. To finally ditch my physical license being on my person at all times will be great!
We don't have to show driving licences to police. We don't have to have them with us when driving.
You don't need to carry any insurance docs. You can get in the car and drive without any requirement to have anything with you at all. The police can see if you have insurance through their database from your reg number.
Because they know when the stop you if there is insurance in place using the APNR
Passport? Driving Licence? Council Tax? NHS Card ( you do have one ), NI number, Electricity and Gas Bills? Banks? Phone contract
Do you live in a forest and are typing this on an actual Apple?
Apparently 50 million people (>70% of the population) in the UK have a driving license. Add in the bank/credit cards or mobile phone/SIM (non-PAYG) that can be used to identify you and I would say the vast majority are already carrying around ID.
I agree with this - hopefully, there will be an option in the GOV app to add certain documents to the OS wallets, but I wouldn't bet on it. From what I can tell, the OS-level wallets can be used to "show" the IDs via the NFC reader rather than showing someone the screen or handing over the phone. I guess Apple has opened up the NFC reader recently, so in theory the GOV app could do the same.
Looking forward to this as I do carry my driving license and getting rid of it would reduce down further my ever-dwindling set of cards to carry. I use a Ridge-style wallet to minimise the bulk and haven't used cash for anything in about 5 years!
I do. I don’t know whether it had any effect or not.
The gov website, and its back end systems, are pretty good, though. Easy enough to submit a tax return, pay vehicle duty, or see what NI contributions you’ve made.
I switched to an actual apple for the better autocorrect and lack of AI.
I am a US citizen living in the UK. Unlike most people commenting here, I have actual experience with UK government ID services and their app. I had a permanent stamp in a passport that served as a visa (as well as a letter). That will no longer be accepted at entry points to the UK - those of us living in the UK with indefinite leave to stay have to get an 'eVisa'. The in-person part of this process, which entailed getting a digital photo, scanning of fingerprints, and checking the various documents required, was surprisingly efficient and managed by courteous, friendly staff. Last week I got an e-mail stating my application had been approved with instructions about how to link the approval with the UK 'ID Check' app on the iPhone. Three attempts failed. I wasted hours, in part because the SMS 2FA code they send you has to be entered within 10 minutes of being sent from the uk.gov web site, yet the text with the code would often arrive 15 minutes after that. Even once when the code arrived on time and I entered it, the web site should no evidence of my application and approval. I have to say that I have a PhD and have been computing now for 47 years, and to me the instructions were clear as mud.
For fear of not being readmitted to the UK, I cannot travel outwith the country until I have this sorted. I will give this another go this week, but if it fails again, I'll have to contact UKVI. The horror, the horror...
I think any system for driver's licences or ID cards in the UK would be similar, and clearly there are bugs to be worked out (probably on us damned foreigners). I think having electronic ID is good idea, but it really does need refinement so that it is bullet proof in terms of the user interface as well as the security of the system. And it seems odd to have several layers of authentication when the e-documents produced all have a photo ID on them.