OfDIA has authorised the first use of the UK CertifID trust mark by eligible digital verification service providers. UK CertifID will help people and businesses recognise services that meet government standards and appear on the digital verification services register (‘the register’).
Authorising the first use of UK CertifID is an important milestone for the UK market. It will give eligible services a clear and consistent way to show their registered status. Making registered services easier to recognise can help build customer confidence and support growth across the UK digital verification services market.
How UK CertifID makes registered services easier to recognise
Eligible services are now able to use UK CertifID for the first time. To be eligible, services must be certified against version 1.0 of the UK digital verification services trust framework, which came into force on 2 September 2026.
A consistent way for services to show their registered status
For providers of eligible services, UK CertifID turns their registered status into something customers can see more directly. Until now, there was no consistent way for services to visually show this to their customers. UK CertifID gives services an easier way to show their status in their apps, on their websites, marketing materials and in their bids for business.
Making trust visible for people and businesses
For people and businesses, UK CertifID helps to make trust visible. They can have greater confidence that wherever UK CertifID appears, the service has been certified as meeting government standards and is registered. As more eligible services are authorised to use UK CertifID, this should make it easier to distinguish services listed on the register from those that are not.
How to check a UK CertifID trust mark is genuine
People can use UK CertifID to identify a registered service if they wish, although we expect automated systems to rely on the machine-readable register we are building instead.
If you wish to check a UK CertifID trust mark is genuine:
- Find the unique identifier (this will be a 6-digit number that accompanies the logo)
- Search the unique identifier on the register
- Check the registered service matches the service displaying UK CertifID.
Why a registered service may not display UK CertifID
We recommend eligible services use the UK CertifID trust mark but it is not mandatory to do so.
A service may be registered even if it does not display UK CertifID. For example, services certified against version gamma of the trust framework may appear on the register but are not eligible to use UK CertifID. If a service does not display UK CertifID, you can still search the register by service or provider name, to check they are listed.
If you are authorised to use UK CertifID and believe another organisation is using it without permission, tell us and your Conformity Assessment Body using your usual contact channels.
Which services can use UK CertifID
To be eligible to use UK CertifID, a digital verification service must:
- Be independently certified against version 1.0 of the trust framework (which requires the service provider to agree to Terms of Use)
- Agree to follow the trust mark usage guidelines
- Be listed on the register
OfDIA then authorises use of UK CertifID by the eligible service and issues it with a unique identifier. We expect more services to be eligible to use UK CertifID over the coming months.
What happens next for UK CertifID
The UK CertifID trust mark is no longer just a concept. It’s real and it’s live. People and businesses should now begin to see UK CertifID on more eligible services. This is an important next step toward making trusted digital verification services easier to recognise.
If your service is eligible, you can now use UK CertifID to make your registered status visible, build customer confidence and support trust.
4 comments
Comment by MarkK posted on
The 'customers' of the ID system are the relying parties, not the public. This is clear from the description of it being a market; in a market someone pays some someone else (of the purchaser's choice) for something.
This will indeed help businesses to spot the only providers that will offer 'statutory excuses' when used for false positives (which is primarily what they would be paying for), but there is no explanation of how it helps the public.
Comment by John Peart posted on
Hi MarkK,
Thanks for your feedback. As we’ve mentioned in this post, we anticipate that the trust mark will serve two purposes:
1. To help DVS providers more consistently demonstrate that they have been placed on the GOV.UK register
2. To help relying parties and individuals to recognise that a service is on the register; and as each trust mark features a unique 6 digit code, someone can refer back to the register, as one method of checking if it is genuine.
In this sense, UK CertifID is a mark of quality, similar to the Red Tractor you’d see on food products, or the Gas Safe symbol you’d see for gas engineers.
Our thinking on how the trust mark could help DVS providers, relying parties, and individuals is evolving and has evolved as we have developed it. We are open to feedback on how we might make the use of the trust mark useful for each of these groups.
JP
Comment by Nick Tegg posted on
Are there any plans for the UK CertifID be issued as a verifiable credential?
Comment by John Peart posted on
Hi Nick,
Thank you for your question.
We do not currently have any plans to issue the UK CertifID trust mark as a verifiable credential. That said, we’d be interested in feedback about how this might work and what the benefits of doing so might be.
JP