GOV.UK ID Check

Government Digital Service

About this app

GOV.UK ID Check is a secure way to confirm your identity when you sign in to a government service with GOV.UK One Login. It works by matching your face to your photo ID.

Before you start
You can use any of the following types of photo ID:
• UK photocard driving licence
• UK passport
• non-UK passport with a biometric chip
• UK biometric residence permit (BRP)
• UK biometric residence card (BRC)
• UK Frontier Worker permit (FWP)

You can use an expired BRP, BRC or FWP up to 18 months after its expiry date.

You will also need:
• a well-lit area where you can take a good quality photograph
• an Android phone running Android version 10 or higher

How it works
If your photo ID is a driving licence you will:
• take a photo of your driving licence
• scan your face using your phone

If your photo ID is a passport, BRP, BRC or FWP you will:
• take a photo of your photo ID
• scan the biometric chip in your photo ID using your phone
• scan your face using your phone

What happens next
The app only helps confirm your identity. You will return to the website of the government service you were accessing to view the results of your identity check.

Privacy and security
Your personal information will not be stored in the app, or on the phone when you finish using it. We collect your data securely and delete it when it is no longer needed.

Ratings and reviews

Terrible experience caused by lack of pathway to sort things when something fails. We live in Ireland now & still need access to various UK gov services. Attempting to complete registering processing fails every time at facial recognition stage. Android 13 (above 10 stated as min). Several different browsers. Just 'Something went wrong'. No info on what to do next. To make matters worse, GDS team number from outside UK is unobtainable, contact form resulted in cannot help you!! What a joke.

The most ridiculous app ever. Trying to link it to your ID takes round in circles, the online help is all over the place and sends you to various places all asking for a passcode that you can only get from the app you are trying to link. I eventually got a 2 hour suspension for signing in with the wrong credentials. This is a convoluted mess.

it's atrocious, nothing works as it should.. Nephew got blocked trying to Confirm identity on iPhone.. I'm on Android.. it won't link to your account at all without you logging in on a desktop and scanning a QR code.. but doesn't instruct you this is possible via the app or even give you an option.. just says "Link Account" then "oops something went wrong".. Diabolical that they can even release these services that simply don't work without trying to guess how the underlying technology works..

What's new

We’ve fixed bugs and made technical updates to the document sharing part of the journey.