DARREN JONES 2025 DUCHY OF LANCASTER SECRETARY STATE CABINET MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT MPs SIR KEIR STARMER LABOUR'S MINISTERS AND GOVERMENT FOR KING CHARLES

Press release Published: 10 March 2026

Government launches consultation on making public services quicker, easier and more secure to access with digital ID
The Government has launched a consultation asking the public to share their views on how digital ID is used to make public services quicker, easier and more secure to access. But, without transparency, or single point of contact where the buck stops. The fact so many departments are involved, is a sign of the intention to pass victims of digital ineptitude, from one department to another.

From: Cabinet Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Government Digital Service and The Rt Hon Darren Jones MP

- Consultation will let the public have their say on how digital ID is used to make public services quicker, easier and more secure to access.

- Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister says government needs to “catch up” with services offered by the private sector, like online banking

- Digital ID prototype shows how “government by app” could work with the digital ID system as its foundation, doing the join-up work between departments you currently have to do yourself, for you.

The public are being given the chance (duped and bamboozled) to have their say on how the new digital ID could help them access public services more quickly, easily and securely - as the government launches a national consultation today. This is of course, pie in the sky, where the GOV.UK LOGIN system is presently dysfunctional, proving that the digital ID system proposed is doomed to more institutionalises buck passing, and potholed agendas.

From managing free childcare payments to filing tax returns, the consultation will seek views from people on how the system could be used to make public services work better for them. Or, how such a system might ensnare them in a never ending spiral of ping-pong correspondence, when there is a foul up, as with the Horizon Post Office scandal.

Alongside the consultation, the government will reveal images and videos of a working prototype of the system showing how people could (could, being the operative word, not will be guaranteed to be able to) log on to a single app and prove who they are, ending a reliance on multiple logins and paper documents to access the support they need, saving time and effort.

Government by app will be as easy and secure as online banking, and will be available to those who want it. It will remove the frustration of endless telephone calls, complicated printed forms and people having no idea of how long it will take them to get the support they need. Existing routes to accessing public services will continue to be available for those who prefer them. However, reliance on smart phones is not reliable, when telephonic communications break down. Imagine trying to change your mobile phone number?

The system is part of wider government plans to reform (complicate) public services, modernise public sector technology and replace legacy systems, to make services work better for people across the country and is expected to save money in the long run, by replacing the expensive legacy paper-based systems currently in place. The numbers across government are huge: the DVLA currently processes 45,000 letters a day, Defra uses 500 different paper forms, HMRC handles 100,000 phone calls a day.

And still none of the systems works, unless you can make it to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, is quoted as saying:

People too often dread their interactions with public services. Endless telephone calls, complicated printed forms and having to tell your story multiple times to different parts of government.

I want to change that and make public services work for you. The new digital ID will make that possible, allowing you to log on and prove who you are to access public services more quickly, easily and securely.

Supermarkets, banks and shops have all chosen to move their services online because it delivers a better customer experience and value for money, and other countries like Estonia fully digitised public services years ago. We need to catch up.

We’re launching a public consultation to let you have your say about how we use digital ID to make public services work for you. We want to build a system that works for everyone. Now is your chance.

Anyone starting a new job will be able to use the new digital proof of identity for digital right to work checks, which will be required by the end of the Parliament - or they will be able to do a digital check of other documents such as passport or eVisa if they prefer.

The consultation will find out how digital ID can best work for people across the country and use their feedback to build a system that can help them access services and offer the best possible benefits. Questions include:

At what age you should be able to get a digital ID;

What information it would be useful to include – such as proof of address as well as identity – to end the scramble for a utility bill or bank statement;

Which government services it could improve your experience of, for example getting a driving licence or checking your tax code; and

How we make sure everyone is included.

To ensure the government hears views from people from all walks of life, an in-depth process going beyond typical government consultations will be launched. Alongside the eight-week online consultation, the government will establish a People’s Panel on digital ID, bringing together people across the country from different backgrounds. The panel will have in-depth discussions, sharing different views on the proposals and will agree ways to move forward.

While the prototype unveiled today gives the public insight into what the digital ID might look like and the type of services it might cover, the final design of the scheme will be subject to the outcome of the consultation and the views shared.

The announcement follows the Roadmap for Modern Digital Government, which set out how technology will transform services right across the state, from digitising planning to making it easier for people to manage their benefits and tax. The government is making it easier for organisations to move away from outdated technology, overhauling funding so old systems can be replaced faster, and doubling the number of tech experts across Whitehall.

The fact is Darren, nobody gets to hear about such consultations, it is alleged they are a ruse, to make it appear that a consultation has taken place, when it fact it is a deception.

According to the UK Government website, Darren Jones is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the chief secretary to the Prime Minister.

Darren Paul Jones (born 13 November 1986) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since September 2025, having previously served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from July 2024 to September 2025 and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from September 2023 to July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament for Bristol North West since 2017. He chaired the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee from 2020 to 2023.

LEGAL CAREER

Jones initially worked at Womble Bond Dickinson LLP, before becoming an in-house counsel with BT, advising on data privacy, cyber-security, telecommunications and consumer law. In Bristol, he started a mentoring programme seeking to bring young people from his old school into the legal profession. Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, he sat on the board of UK Legal Futures, which brought together leading lawyers to advise politicians and civil servants on legal questions raised by Brexit.

POLITICAL CAREER

Jones stood as the Labour candidate in Torridge and West Devon at the 2010 general election, coming fourth with 5.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox, the Liberal Democrat candidate, and the UKIP candidate. Jones later sat on the national youth committees of the Co-operative Party and Unite the Union and was elected to Unite's Regional Political Committee in the South West.

At the 2015 general election, Jones stood in Bristol North West, coming second with 34.4% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie. Following the 2015 election, Jones joined the campaign of Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham as its South West Co-ordinator, and chaired Marvin Rees's successful campaign to become Mayor of Bristol.

In 2016 he joined the Remain campaign in the EU membership referendum and chaired the Young Lawyers' Network, a nationwide group campaigning for a vote to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Later in 2016, he went to the United States to work for the Clinton campaign in Miami during that year's US Presidential election.

Jones was also the chair of Labour Digital, a Labour think tank.

PARLIAMENTARY CAREER

1st term (2017–2019)

At the 2017 general election, Jones was elected the Member of Parliament for Bristol North West, overturning a Conservative majority of 4,944 on a 9.2 percent swing. In his maiden speech, Jones noted that he was the first Darren ever elected to Parliament.

Between 2017 and 2020, Jones was a member of the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the European Scrutiny Committee.

In 2019, then Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, appointed Jones as the Convenor of the Future Britain Group, which was established following a number of defections from the Labour Party in a bid to prevent further defections.

2nd term (2019–2024)

Jones was re-elected at the 2019 general election, with an increased majority of 5,692 but a decreased vote share of 48.9%.

Following Keir Starmer's election as Labour leader in April 2020, Jones was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary jointly to Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Attorney General Charlie Falconer, and served until his election as Chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

Jones built a national profile as Chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, winning a number of awards and attracting millions of views of his committee hearings on social media.

He led on a number of issues including the withholding of redundancy payments from AstraZeneca workers, the campaign to increase miners' pensions through the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, and the British Post Office scandal, the right for workers to join a trade union at Amazon and the dispute related to changes at Royal Mail. In 2020, he introduced the UK's first citizens' assembly on net zero to Parliament. He has also led Parliamentary inquiries into the decarbonisation of heating, electricity and industry, as well as reform of the energy market in the United Kingdom.

Jones also sat on the National Security Strategy Joint Committee and, following the introduction of the National Security and Investment Act 2021, became responsible as Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee for holding the Government to account for its use of national security powers. He has also served on the Liaison Committee, the committee that scrutinises the Prime Minister. As a member of that committee, Jones had frequent notable exchanges with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, including during the final days prior to Johnson announcing his resignation in July 2022 when Jones informed him that his cabinet was waiting for him in 10 Downing Street to tell him to resign.

Jones was the founder and chair of the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, a global network of legislators interested in emerging technology regulation, and in 2021 was appointed to the Online Safety Bill pre-legislative scrutiny committee. In 2021, he passed the Forensic Science Regulator Act 2021, having been successful in the ballot for a Private Members Bill, giving the forensic science regulator statutory powers to ensure service quality standards from the privatised forensic science companies working with the police.

In 2022, Jones was appointed as a member of the UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly.

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he joined the shadow cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He has been described as one of the Labour Party's strongest communicators and became one of the most recognisable faces of the shadow cabinet during the 2024 general election campaign.

3rd term (2024–)

At the 2024 general election, Jones was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 49.6% and an increased majority of 15,669; representing the largest majority ever recorded in Bristol North West.

Jones was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury and attends Cabinet. As deputy to the Chancellor, he is responsible for public spending, delivering the government's ten year national infrastructure strategy and leading for HM Treasury on the digital transformation of public services. Since April 2025, he has also been responsible for the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).

Jones apologised for comments he made after the March 2025 United Kingdom spring statement, where he used the example of pocket money when talking about cuts to Personal Independence Payments for disabled people. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves had said it was "not the right analogy" when asked about the comment in an interview.

On the BBC's Question Time on 12 June 2025, Jones said of English Channel migrant crossings "And when you see that the majority of the people in these boats are children, babies and women… you have got to take note". Jones rejected fellow panellist Zia Yusuf's statement that 90% of cross-Channel migrants were men. In 2024, 76% of migrants were adult men, while in the first three months of 2025 it was 81% adult men, with children being four-fifths male. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for Jones to retract his statement and apologise. The following day, Jones said that the majority of migrants were men, and that his statement about women and children being the majority referred to one visit he had made to Border Security Command.

In a cabinet reshuffle on 1 September 2025, Jones was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and was succeeded by James Murray as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was also appointed as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 5 September, after Pat McFadden succeeded Liz Kendall as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

POLITICAL POSITIONS

Politico Europe has described Jones as being on the Labour right, and he has described Tony Blair as one of his political heroes.

He has been noted as a prominent voice in debates on technology policy in Parliament, and has described himself as a techno-optimist. He supported Remain in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He has supported electoral reform to a proportional system. He has opposed ending UK arms sales to Israel during the Gaza war, saying that it would not end the war, though understood why people would call for it "in the circumstances". In 2025 Jones said the era of globalisation "ended" following Donald Trump's tariffs.

Jones told his constituents in November 2024 that he would not support the assisted dying legislation being brought to Parliament by his Labour colleague Kim Leadbeater.