Digital ID Scrapped: What It Means for Right-to-Work Checks

What was the digital ID scheme and why is it being scrapped?

The proposed digital ID, sometimes referred to as a "Brit card," would have recorded a holder's residency status, name, date of birth, nationality and photograph, and was announced by Keir Starmer in 2025 partly as a tool for tackling illegal migration; Burnham's office has described scrapping it as a "reset of priorities" toward cost of living measures.

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the scheme's cost at £1.8 billion between the 2026/27 and 2028/29 financial years, a figure Downing Street had previously disputed without providing its own estimate. A parliamentary committee had separately described the programme as a "fiasco," and a cross-party group of MPs raised concerns about delivery risk before the change of leadership.

Burnham has said he was previously supportive of the principle of ID cards during an earlier ministerial role, but has argued the scheme risked becoming a costly distraction rather than a quick win. The Conservatives have accused him of claiming credit for a decision they say had effectively already been made after prior political pressure, so the practical scope of what is being withdrawn, versus what had already been quietly shelved, remains a point of dispute between the parties.

The scrapped scheme was pitched partly as an anti-fraud measure; separate Home Office-commissioned research published this month found that only 18% of Britons can identify money muling as illegal, one of several financial-crime areas the department has been focused on independently of digital ID.

What does this mean for right-to-work checks in the UK?

Employers' existing right-to-work check obligations, which currently rely on passports, biometric residence permits, or an online share code through the Home Office's checking service, are not reported to be changing as a result of this decision, since the digital ID scheme had not yet been implemented.

The scheme was intended to add or eventually replace elements of the current process rather than being already in operation, so its cancellation is reported as a withdrawal of a future system rather than a live change to current employer compliance duties.

Employers who use a paid immigration adviser to help with right-to-work or visa-status queries should check the adviser is registered, as covered in how UK immigration advisers get regulated. Separately, Border Force has this month issued an unrelated warning to young travellers about drug smuggling gangs operating at UK points of entry.