The U.K.’s Document Checking Service (DCS) is to provide a new way to help verify the identity of British passport holders. It has been designed to help prevent fraud, speed up checks and allow people to prove their identity for both face-to-face and online transactions.
The DCS was previously only available for use in government transactions, however it can now be used by pilot-participating private sector firms to check passport information provided by U.K. citizens against government held data.
With citizen consent, service providers will use IDEMIA’s IDway solution to instantly check people’s passport details match the U.K. government’s passport office database. The DCS will then respond yes or no to confirm whether or not the passport details are valid. People’s private data are protected at all times.
