The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, enables the use of secure digital verification services for those who want to use them. In May 2024, OfDIA commissioned research on the UK digital identity market, including a consumer survey on the benefits and barriers to digital identity use. The findings are published on GOV.UK alongside a report on the inclusivity of the certified digital identity market. OfDIA will continue to publish these reports annually.

For the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, OfDIA conducted a De Minimis assessment of the economic costs and benefits of the digital verification services provisions. This is available on GOV.UK and a post-implementation review will be published in due course.

The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is committed to enabling the use of secure and trusted digital verification services across the UK economy for those who want to use them.

This work is informed by responses to a 2019 call for evidence on digital identity that requested views on how the Government can support the development and secure use of digital identities and was followed by an extensive consultation process.

OfDIA continues to regularly engage with stakeholders, including digital verification providers, industry bodies, civil society, academics and organisations interested in adopting digital identities.

In response to the 2019 call for evidence on digital identity, the Government committed to enabling the use of secure digital identities in the UK by creating a framework of standards, legislation and governance. In 2021, a consultation on digital identity gathered further views on the development of a legal and regulatory framework.

The Government’s UK digital identity and attributes trust framework sets out rules for digital verification services. It has been developed iteratively through extensive engagement with the ICO, civil society and industry stakeholders to help ensure that it meets the needs of users. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 will underpin this framework with statutory duties on the Secretary of State, including a duty to consult and to conduct annual reviews. Over 50 services are already certified against the trust framework and delivering digital verification services across the UK economy.

The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is committed to enabling the use of secure and trusted digital verification services across the UK economy for those who want to use them.

In response to the findings of the 2019 call for evidence on digital identity, the Government set out six principles to inform the development of digital identity policy in the UK. These are privacy, transparency, inclusivity, interoperability, proportionality, and good governance. The Government’s UK digital identity and attributes trust framework, which sets out rules for digital verification services that wish to be certified as trustworthy and will be underpinned by provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, is based around these principles.

The Government continues to assess international trends and standards in digital identity policy and implementation. This includes benchmarking the UK’s digital identity and attributes trust framework against other comparable international frameworks and guidelines. The Government also regularly engages with a range of international partners on a bilateral and multilateral basis.

The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is responsible for maintaining the standards, governance and legislation that helps people to identify trusted and secure digital identity services.

OfDIA regularly engages with cross-government colleagues regarding digital identity policy, including work to remove regulatory barriers to adoption in different use cases where these exist. OfDIA also facilitates regular technical working groups for cross-government collaboration, which provide input into the development of standards, guidance and best practice that support the Government’s digital identity work.

This information is set out in Ofcom's Annual Reports and Accounts 2023-24.

Ofcom employs 1,483 employees (full time equivalents). Non-Executive Members of the Ofcom Board, Content Board, Advisory Committees and employees seconded to Ofcom are excluded from employee numbers.

The breakdown for each Directorate is as follows:

Broadcasting and Media Group - 118

Networks and Communications Group - 146

Spectrum Group - 242

Online Safety Group - 189

Economics and Analytics Group - 117

Legal Group - 119

Strategy and Research Group - 157

Corporate Group - 363

Central – 31

The Corporate Group includes Finance, HR, the Contact Centre, ICT, Public Policy and Nations teams, Communications, Governance and Accountability, and Data and Information.

The Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") employs 35 staff in its Communications Team. The team was restructured, and its remit redefined, several times over the last six years, including in 2024. Therefore, the CMA does not have a readily available comparison for the previous six years. The Communications Team budget for the current financial year (2024/24) is £3.2m.

The CMA employs 131 staff in its Competition Enforcement Directorate.

The CMA employs 118 staff in its Consumer Protection and Markets Team.

Expenditure for each year from 2019-20 to 2023-24 is shown in the table below for the Competition Enforcement Directorate and Consumer Protection function. Since 2024, the latter has sat in a newly formed Consumer Protection and Markets Directorate. It would not be possible to provide directly comparable expenditure figures for 2018-19 because these were not separate reporting areas at that time.

The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) currently employs five full time equivalent staff in its advocacy team with a total annual budget of £0.6m.

The CMA employs 11 full time equivalent staff in its strategy team with a total annual budget of £1.1m

Full time equivalent staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

The CMA currently employs 35 people in its Communications Team, which includes stakeholder and business engagement, compliance communications, digital communications, media relations and strategic communications. It has a total annual budget of £3.2m in the current financial year (2024-25). Like other organisations, the CMA is in the process of reviewing its future budgets, and expects to reduce the budget for the Communications Team by at least 10%.

The Competition and Markets Authority employs approximately 1,120 staff. Full Time Equivalent staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number. These figures include individuals with a CMA contract of employment, irrespective of the length of contract, whether being paid or not and so includes those on parental leave, a career break or those loaned or seconded out of the CMA. It excludes agency workers and CMA Board and Panel members.

The breakdown for each Directorate is as follows:

Senior Executive Team - 11

Competition Enforcement - 131

Consumer Protection and Markets - 118

Digital Markets Unit - 70

Mergers - 76

Office for the Internal Market and Subsidy Advice Unit - 33

Office of the Chief Economic Adviser - 160

Legal Service - 176

Corporate Services - 121

Data, Technology and Insight - 133

Strategy, Communications and Advocacy - 91

Where government intervention requires a legislative or policy change, departments are expected to analyse and assess the impact of the change on the different groups affected.

Impact assessments are generally required for all the Government's interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector and-or civil society organisation or public services. The Better Regulation Framework requires regulatory provisions with impacts on business of greater than +/-£10 million to be accompanied by a final impact assessment which is laid before Parliament alongside the regulations. These assessments must consider impact on small and micro businesses, explore whether such businesses need to be in scope and, where appropriate, identify mitigations for the additional burden. Provisions with lower impacts should provide a proportionate assessment or estimate of the impacts in the accompanying Explanatory Notes or Memorandum.

This Government is determined to address concerns about the complexity and structure of the regulatory system by providing clear and consistent strategic direction, enabling regulators to plan effectively and deliver long-term objectives in line with the Government’s priorities. This is why the Prime Minister, in conjunction with the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, wrote to key regulators asking them to provide concrete proposals to prioritise growth with the support of Government. Our overall regulatory vision, which will address these will issues, will be set out in due course.

The ability to challenge regulatory decisions where necessary is critical to an effective regulatory system that drives economic growth. Most regulatory decisions are subject to internal appeal within regulators. This Government is committed to ensuring regulators are effective and fully accountable, as demonstrated by the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business and Trade’s recent meeting with regulators where they scrutinised the pro-growth measures that regulators had identified to support the growth mission. The Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury are leading the regulatory reform agenda across Government and we will set out our overall regulatory vision shortly.

The UK recognises the potential impacts of deep sea mining are not fully understood and supports a moratorium on the granting of mining licences by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) until sufficient scientific evidence is available to assess the impact on marine ecosystems, and strong, enforceable environmental regulations, standards and guidelines are adopted by the ISA.

Through the UK's sponsorship of academic research and existing exploration licences, over 70 peer-reviewed publications supporting a greater understanding of environmental issues associated with deep sea mining have already been produced, with more to come.

In 2022 the UK government commissioned an independent deep sea mining evidence review conducted by the British Geological Survey, National Oceanography Centre and Heriot Watt University and it was published in October 2022.

The government, through UK Research and Innovation and National Environment Research Council, (UKRI-NERC) is also funding the 5-year SMARTEX (Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impact) project which aims to build a better understanding of the ecosystem in the Pacific abyss and add to the scientific evidence base for informed decision-making by understanding the long-term environmental impacts of mining and whether this will have serious consequences for the ecosystem.

The UK Government is committed to transparency in all aspects of its deep sea mining policy and strongly advocate for it as a core aspect of the UK's negotiating position at the International Seabed Authority.

The UK commissions independent reviews, sponsors academic research, and funds projects like the Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impact project. These initiatives aim to understand and publicly share the long-term environmental impacts, supporting informed decision-making and responsible policy development.

The programme will continue. Ministers are considering carefully its scope and structure to ensure that it is set up for success. The House will of course be notified of any appointments in due course.