20 September 2022: GOV.UK Verify Accounting Officer assessment
Published 29 September 2022
Accounting Officer Memorandum: GOV.UK Verify (Government Digital Service)
An Accounting Officer assessment for the Verify Programme was conducted was conducted in line with the Cabinet Office commitment to publish Accounting Officer Assessments for Government’s Major Projects. This Accounting Officer assessment considers the four standards of regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility.
Background and context
The GOV.UK Verify (‘Verify’) system went live in 2016 and has since accumulated almost 10 million user accounts, enabling people to prove their identity and thus access up to 27 different online government services. The programme has not consistently met all of its objectives, however, and in late 2018 a decision was taken to wind down the system, with closure now confirmed for April 2023. The justification for continued funding in this interim period is to ensure continuity of service for those departments reliant on Verify and a smooth transition to the new cross-government sign-on and identity assurance solution, One Login for Government.
Regularity
Spending on Verify falls within the Cabinet Office’s inherent powers and no primary legislation is required to continue and close the programme. Cabinet Office’s departmental expenditure aims to drive more effective delivery across government and to modernise and reform the work of His Majesty’s Government (HMG) functions. Spending on Verify is consistent with both of these goals.
GDS has had the mandate to run Verify since its inception. The ability to check the identity of users on behalf of other government departments and services is covered in Memoranda of Understanding signed between GDS and those relying parties. The programme is therefore working within existing powers.
Continued funding of Verify until April 2023 was agreed through Spending Review 2021 and subsequently confirmed by HM Treasury in the Main Estimates. As the programme’s cost exceeds the Cabinet Office’s delegated authority from HM Treasury, it has been developed and assured throughout its lifecycle in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book and Approvals processes, with the next treasury approvals point panel scheduled for the 28th September.
Regularity Accounting Officer Standard: Met.
Propriety
The Verify programme is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) and is also overseen by the Chair of the Cabinet Office Portfolio Office. A permanent Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the programme (and One Login simultaneously) has been in post since September 2021. The SRO is directly accountable to the CEO of GDS. Verify’s wider governance framework includes a Programme Board, which is attended by senior officials from across government. These arrangements together ensure that the programme is subject to regular and robust reporting and assurance.
The high profile of the programme has also led to the commissioning of various independent reviews into Verify, including those by the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office. These have shaped the direction of Verify in its final years and also informed the development of the One Login programme.
Verify’s live service will continue to be monitored and supported until its close down, and standard escalation routes and engagement channels will remain open with relying parties to ensure decommissioning plans are communicated effectively. Under these plans, active Verify databases will be shut down with any remaining personal data no longer explicitly required being deleted in accordance with UK Data Protection Act 2018. Data required for audit, billing, fraud prevention or security purposes will be retained for a period of 5 years which will be used alongside Identity Provider logs for any investigations initiated after closure. This data will then finally be archived as appropriate along with any relevant business materials in The National Archive, if required for permanent preservation; otherwise the data will be securely deleted in line with the Public Records Act 1967.
The closure itself will be undertaken with the support of a specialised delivery partner. As with Verify’s other commercial arrangements, including with its identity providers, all such procurements will continue to follow relevant regulations and Government Commercial Function and Crown Commercial Service best practices. This includes the use, where relevant, of the G-Cloud 12 and the Digital Outcomes and Specialists frameworks.
The Verify programme routinely takes advice from the Government Legal Department and external lawyers on procurement law issues and on contractual terms and conditions.
A Public Sector Equality Duty Assessment (PSED) has not recently been conducted for Verify. Given its imminent closure and replacement by One Login for Government, the impact on equality can be surmised in One Login’s recent PSED which makes explicit reference to improvements over Verify.
Propriety Accounting Officer Standard: Met
Value for money
Economic appraisals of Verify’s business cases have been undertaken in accordance with HM Treasury’s Green Book principles and the benefits of the programme are continually tracked and reported quarterly as part of GMPP requirements. Across its lifetime and up to the end of financial year 2021/22, we estimate that Verify has produced £485.3m in monetised benefits, against £233.38 in costs, giving a benefits- costs ratio of 2.1:1.
2022/23 will see a projected net cost of £3.8m, covering approximately 250,000 new sign-ups until December 2022 and a similar amount of sign-ins up to April 2023. This represents a significant increase in per-unit cost from previous years due to the loss of volumetric discounts and increase in fixed costs due to final closure. At the same time, the majority of Verify’s benefits are volumetric in nature, and are therefore decreasing as services (and users) offboard ahead of final closure.
Nonetheless, the economic appraisal is still positive for the final year. In addition to the time saved for citizens and the reduced fraud/process costs, financial year 22/23 will see an additional counterfactual saving of £8.1m. This represents the costs incurred by the remaining services if they were forced to procure their own identity solutions or revert to costly in-person methods. With this benefit alone, a positive benefits cost ratio is produced, making continued investment represent good value for money.
Value for Money Accounting Officer Standard: Met
Feasibility
While active development has ceased, the programme has one further key delivery milestone: the managed closure of the service from April 2023. As part of this decommissioning work, planning is underway to ensure that the remaining Verify services - four of which will move to the new One Login platform - will offboard smoothly in advance of this date.
Feasibility Accounting Officer Standard: Met
Conclusion
I am satisfied that the Verify Programme relies on clear legal powers, meets the standards in Managing Public Money and accords with the generally understood principles of public life, representing value for money for the Exchequer as a whole, and is feasible to deliver.
This summary will be published on the government’s website (GOV.UK). Copies will be deposited in the Library of the House of Commons, and sent to the Controller and Auditor General and Treasury Officer of Accounts.
Alex Chisholm
Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office
20 September 2022