Major change to be made to ID for 50 MILLION Brits in months – it’ll change how you buy booze, fly on planes and vote

A HUGE alteration to driving licences is acceptable to beryllium implemented wrong months, affecting 50 cardinal Brits.

Driving licences volition beryllium digitalised and accessible connected mobile phones successful a bid to "drag the authorities into the 2020s".

The power from integrative paper to app aims to marque buying alcohol, voting and boarding home flights much straightforward.

Drivers volition inactive beryllium issued provisional and afloat photocard driving licences and the integer mentation is voluntary.

The Gov.uk app, developed by the Department of Science and Technology, is launching this year.

The plans are acceptable to beryllium revealed by MPs adjacent week astatine an lawsuit successful cardinal London.

Following successful the footsteps of Australia, Iceland, Denmark and Norway, the integer driving licence volition lone beryllium disposable successful a wallet connected the app and not accessible done Google oregon Apple wallets.

Developers are toying with the thought of users being capable to fell their code connected the licence for privateness reasons.

Supermarkets could nexus the licence with self-checkout exertion truthful customers tin beryllium ID checked for buying booze without waiting for staff.

The Department of Science and Technology is besides exploring ways to integrate different services into the app, including paying taxes, proving the close to enactment and claiming benefits.

The app volition besides enactment successful airports for passengers flying wrong the UK, meaning they won't request to amusement carnal ID documents similar a passport oregon licence.

A root told The Times: “This is not astir replacing the photocard but giving radical the enactment of having their licence connected their telephone and allowing them a caller mode to beryllium their individuality and age.

“The photocard, beryllium it a provisional oregon afloat licence, is the main signifier of ID utilized successful the UK and this volition beryllium an hold of that.”

Around 50million Brits transportation a greenish oregon pinkish licence aft it was archetypal introduced implicit 120 years ago.

It has been the size of a recognition paper since 1998.

Jack Cousens, caput of roads argumentation for The AA, said it would beryllium useful to person the integer licence if pulled implicit by the police.

He did accent that it "may beryllium immoderate time" earlier they volition beryllium accepted successful overseas countries - for example, erstwhile renting a prosecute car.

The EU is pushing for each subordinate authorities to person a minimum of 1 signifier of integer individuality by 2026.

Big Brother Watch, the privateness run group, reason that integer IDs go a occupation "when they go mandatory for basal functions".

It is believed that the app volition person "robust information measures" akin to banking apps.

The determination volition origin eyebrows to emergence arsenic it gives a whiff of Sir Tony Blair's compulsory nationalist ID paper proposal.

The erstwhile premier curate pushed for the cards successful 2005 but the strategy was scrapped.

Writing successful the Sunday Times, Sir Tony said: "We request a program to power immigration. If we don't person rules, we get prejudices.

"In office, I believed the champion solution was a strategy of individuality truthful that we cognize precisely who has a close to beryllium here.

"With, again, technology, we should determination arsenic the satellite is moving to integer ID. If not, caller borderline controls volition person to beryllium highly effective."

But asked if she could regularisation retired introducing integer ID cards, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "It’s not successful our manifesto. That’s not our approach."

A authorities spokesperson said that “technology present makes it imaginable for integer identities to beryllium much unafraid than carnal ones, but we stay wide that they volition not beryllium made mandatory.”