DCMS consultation response was woeful says Mvine director.

Mvine Limited issues today its own response to the UK government’s consultation response on digital identity which was published on 1st September 2020 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Official statistics for gross value added in 2018 produced in February this year by DCMS themselves showed the digital sector is worth £400m a day and contributed £149bn to the UK in 2018, or in other words 7.7% of the UK economy.

The UK is capable of far greater performance and will need to deliver especially as we seek trade agreements around the world from January 2021.

Frank Joshi, Director at Mvine, said: “We’re at the dawn of a new era of the internet. Digital identity is everyone’s business. And in everyone’s interest. But DCMS publishing an emulsion rather than a substantive response, after the views of the private sector were sought and generously contributed, was met with contempt.”

Interoperability, not just between public sector and private sector but also between the UK and internationally, is one of the key issues at stake.

“The fear is the public sector will never truly interoperate with the private sector in the way it could. Moreover, the private sector will forge ahead anyway and build digital identity infrastructure on a multiplicity of differing standards, which would be as foolish as building railways with different gauges,” said Frank Joshi.

A government plan for digital identity needs to have a strategic horizon beyond the mere establishment of digital identity itself. It needs to consider the endgame. It needs to prioritise the digital economy. When we get it right for the UK it can be a great export product.

Mvine joins the calls from the wider UK tech sector, such as those expressed by techUK, the industry body, urging more speedy action to be taken by government on digital identity.

Updated 16 Sept 2020
An opinion piece by Frank Joshi was published today on TechTarget’s ComputerWeekly.com
Read ‘UK government plan for digital identity lacks substance and strategy’

Updated 22 Sept 2020
Frank has received considerable feedback on that opinion piece about the DCMS consultation response on digital identity and we now know that Matt Warman, Minister for Digital at DCMS has seen it, together with his advisers and civil servants who work on the digital identity piece at DCMS. Mvine is grateful for the attention they have given to it and for the action they will bring forward.