Background image: Pixabay, Creative Commons
The Data (Use and Access) Act – among other things – provides a legal footing for what will become the face of the UK’s trusted digital verification ecosystem: the UK CertifID trust mark.
In this blog post, we’ll share information about UK CertifID. We’ll also explain who the trust mark is for, how it was developed, how digital verification services will be able to use it, and when it will become available.
Why a trust markIf you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’re likely to be fairly well steeped in the detail of our trust framework. You may have learned to tell your OSPs from your ASPs, and have a detailed understanding of our version numbering system.
Most people aren’t like that. People want digital verification services they use to be secure, privacy-preserving and convenient, but they don’t necessarily want or need to understand all the technical detail behind them.
This is where the UK CertifID trust mark steps in. You’ll be familiar with trust marks from lots of other places; symbols like the Red Tractor for food, Gas Safe for gas engineers and UKCA for things like toys, lifts and phones.
Our trust mark is like that, but for digital verification services. It will make it easier for people and businesses to instantly recognise digital verification services that meet the government’s requirements and that are listed on the register of digital verification services.
Our intention is that wherever the UK CertifID trust mark is displayed, people and businesses can have increased confidence that a service is safe, secure and is backed by government standards.
Use of the trust mark by eligible digital verification service (DVS) providers will be optional – but we hope it will become widely adopted, as more and more people see the value of it.
Building trust in the trust mark Why we chose “UK CertifID”We’ve spent a while working behind the scenes to develop the UK CertifID trust mark brand. Our success criteria were that the brand name and design should be clear, trustworthy and memorable.
The chosen name and branding were the ones that tested most successfully against those criteria with a nationally representative group of 151 people.
UK CertifID is a portmanteau of two important concepts for digital verification services:
certification – as the method of providing assurance that a service is meeting the rules set of government; and ID – a reference to what you use digital verification services for; proving your identity. How do you say it?It’s pronounced: “You-kay Cert-if-eye-dee”.
Who will be able to use it, and whenThe trust mark will only be able to be used by registered digital verification service providers who are certified against the recently pre-published 1.0 (or later) publication of the trust framework. Providers will also need to agree to and sign the terms and conditions of use before they use the trust mark.
You will be able to find official information on rules of use on GOV.UK shortly.
Certification against 1.0 trust framework is not available yet and timings for this will be announced in due course.
Providing ways to check its realWhenever you see the UK CertifID trust mark within a service, it should consist of two parts:
a logo, and a unique identifying number, which will connect it to a specific service on the register of digital verification servicesThe unique number will provide one way for users to double-check its authenticity.
Action against unauthorised useOfDIA will also be taking an active approach to protecting the trust mark from unauthorised use.
We have put in place a portfolio of protections, including intellectual property protections (the trust mark is a registered trademark), protections under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and rules in the trust framework.
We’ll publish more details on our enforcement approach in due course.
Developing practical guidelines for useYou won’t see the trust mark in the real world just yet. We’re finishing the development of guidelines to ensure that when it is, it will be used clearly and consistently.
We’ll publish more information on GOV.UK and on this blog when the trust mark is available.
seen at 16:30, 16 March in Enabling digital identity.