Digital ID Is Inevitable. Trust In It, Is Not. 

Yesterday, Serve Legal CEO Kate Rand joined policymakers, industry leaders and researchers at the Westminster Policy Forum to explore one of the most complex questions facing UK regulation and high streets today: how to make digital identity work in practice.

The event examined a broad agenda, from the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into government-issued digital identities and the role of digital ID in UK Money Laundering Regulations, through to Companies House identity verification, best practice in housing, healthcare and crime prevention, digital inclusion, fraud, and the implications of the Online Safety Act. Woven through all of these issues were fundamental questions about civil liberties, proportionality and safeguards.

Serve Legal’s contribution focused on what happens where policy, business and everyday life collide: in shops, bars, restaurants and venues across the UK and Ireland.

Serve Legal’s role in the digital ID landscape

Serve Legal is the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of age-verification and compliance auditing. Every year, our nationwide network of young auditors completes hundreds of thousands of anonymous checks for supermarkets, convenience stores, hospitality venues and leisure operators.

That work gives us three distinct vantage points on digital ID:

• we see how regulation is interpreted at the checkout, the bar and the door
• we hear directly from young people – the customers and staff most affected by age checks
• we work with retailers and hospitality businesses who carry the operational and legal risk if they get it wrong

Digital ID sits squarely at this intersection. It is not just a technical issue; it is a question of operational reality, consumer trust and regulatory clarity.

The potential of Digital ID – and the conditions for success

In evidence submitted to the Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into new digital forms of identification, Serve Legal set out clear benefits that a robust digital ID system could bring.

Standardisation is a central advantage. A well-designed framework for digital ID would reduce the ambiguity and inconsistency that currently exists across different forms of physical ID. That in turn would make age checks more reliable and enforcement more straightforward.

Digital ID also offers the chance to close off weaknesses in outdated systems. Criminals exploit gaps in analogue and fragmented identity processes; a modernised, secure digital approach has the potential to reduce those opportunities.

From an operational perspective, integrating digital ID into point-of-sale and access systems could ease pressure on frontline staff. Age checks would become a more seamless part of the transaction, reducing the scope for human error and the confrontations that many workers find challenging.

However, Serve Legal has been equally clear that these benefits are conditional. Any digital ID solution must be recognised and underpinned by enforcement bodies such as Trading Standards and Home Office Licensing if it is to be uniformly adopted. Without clear regulatory recognition and guidance, many businesses, especially independent retailers and smaller venues, will be cautious about investing. The experience of independent stores grappling with rapidly evolving rules on vape sales is a live example of how uneven implementation can be when support and clarity are lacking.

We have also urged government to involve the stakeholder groups most affected by digital ID at the earliest stages of design. That includes major supermarkets and hospitality chains, whose operational insight is vital, as well as local authorities and frontline regulators. If the systems and standards are not built around the realities of high street operations, adoption will stall.

Finally, Trading Standards and local authorities will need the resources to oversee how digital ID is used and how verification software is implemented. Introducing new tools without strengthening the enforcement ecosystem risks creating an uneven, confusing landscape for both businesses and consumers. These enforcement bodies will need time, resource and budget to uphold the standards they lay out.

What young people think about digital ID

One of the most closely watched contributions from Serve Legal at the Westminster Policy Forum was our exclusive data on young people’s attitudes to digital ID, drawn from a survey of more than 350 of our auditors.

Despite being highly familiar with digital technology, very few respondents currently use digital ID for age verification: just 6.9% told us they do. Views on where digital ID should be accepted were mixed. Around 31% believe digital ID should be accepted everywhere that physical ID is currently used, 22% support its use in some circumstances but not all, 28% are entirely opposed to the use of digital ID; 18% remain unsure.

Trust in different types of digital ID also produced striking results. A majority of respondents, 56.2%, said they would trust a government-issued digital ID the most. Notably, over a third said they would not use digital ID at all.

We’re hearing the same concern again and again: privacy. In fact, when asked about the biggest barriers to using digital ID, 78% of respondents cited privacy worries.

These findings reveal a nuanced picture. Young people are not rejecting digital ID because they are anti-technology; they are uncertain about who controls it, what data is collected, how it will be used and what happens if something goes wrong. There is also frustration with partial, inconsistent adoption which undermines confidence.

Serve Legal CEO, Kate Rand, commented: “Digital ID can’t be something we build in isolation and then try to sell to young people afterwards. It has to be co-created with them, with privacy and agency designed in from the start. Otherwise we will spend years trying to repair trust that we could have earned by involving them on day one.”

This theme of co-creation ran throughout the discussion. Education will matter, but it cannot be one-way communication after decisions have been taken. Young people need clear explanations of benefits and safeguards, and real influence over how digital ID is designed and deployed.

Retailers’ priorities and concerns

Serve Legal also surveyed a number of our nationwide retail and hospitality clients to understand how they view digital ID adoption. Their responses underline the gap between theoretical benefits and operational reality.

When asked about their main concerns, 59% cited privacy and data handling, 53% were worried about liability if the technology fails or is spoofed, and 47% pointed to the risk of technology faults or system downtime. For businesses on the frontline, these are not abstract fears: a failure in an ID system can mean a failed test purchase, a licensing breach, or a reputational hit.

At the same time, retailers can see clear advantages if digital ID is implemented properly. They highlighted the potential to reduce staff pressure, improve customer experience and strengthen compliance with the law. There is an appetite to modernise checks, but it is contingent on confidence in the framework around them.

That is reflected in what retailers told us they would need to implement digital ID successfully. Every respondent – 100% – said they required assurance that systems would be interoperable. No business wants to invest in multiple, incompatible solutions or gamble on which provider will eventually align with government standards. Clear government guidance and regulation was the next priority, identified by 81% of respondents, followed by staff training at 69%.

Despite wider public debate around state overreach, both our retailer and auditor data suggest that government-issued ID retains a high level of trust. The barrier is not the idea of government involvement in identity per se; it is the lack of clarity about how digital ID will work, how it will be enforced and how individuals’ data will be protected.

Co-creation, trust and the way forward

A central theme of the Westminster Policy Forum discussion was trust. Will young people trust large corporations and government bodies with their digital ID when those same organisations already hold so much of their personal data? What happens if different providers are trusted to different degrees? Is there misinformation circulating that undermines confidence in specific schemes or providers?

These questions cannot be answered purely through messaging after systems are built. The consensus in the discussion was that co-creation – with young people, with retailers, with technology providers and with regulators – is the only sustainable path. Trying to retrospectively persuade sceptical users and cautious businesses is both slower and riskier than involving them early.

Serve Legal’s data brought this point into sharp relief. The low current usage of digital ID, the high level of concern about privacy and cost, the split views on where it should be accepted, and the strong preference for government-issued solutions all indicate a landscape where trust is fragile and education is incomplete.

Our position is that digital ID is the direction of travel. It can strengthen compliance, support safer high streets and make life easier for both staff and customers. However, it will only deliver on that promise if three things happen.

First, government must work with retailers and hospitality businesses from the outset, using their environments as testbeds and drawing on their operational expertise.

Second, local authorities and Trading Standards need the tools, investment and capacity to oversee implementation effectively. That includes clarity on which legislation digital ID will sit under – from licensing and age-restricted sales to right to work checks – and a clear enforcement model with budget to organise audits.

Third, young people must be brought into the design process, with transparent explanations of privacy measures and real opportunities to shape how digital ID works for them. They should be shown not only how it can prevent harm but also how it can offer convenience and control.

Serve Legal’s Commitment

Serve Legal will continue to support this agenda with what we uniquely offer: detailed, real-world data from both young people and retailers, and deep experience of how regulation translates into day-to-day practice on the high street.

We are committed to sharing insights that show how government policy is interpreted and applied in real settings; we are committed to helping retailers and hospitality businesses test and refine implementation strategies through audits; we are committed to ensuring the voices of young people – particularly around privacy, trust and usability – are heard clearly in policy discussions

Digital ID is not just a technological upgrade; it is a reshaping of how identity, responsibility and safety are managed in public and commercial spaces. If it is built with the people who rely on it, it can deliver genuine benefits for consumer safety, business efficiency and regulatory confidence. Serve Legal is ready to be a partner in making that happen.