The government has announced a mandatory digital ID implant to access banking and healthcare by 2026.
False. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology confirmed this isn’t true, and the claim appears to have originated from a TikTok video with “#fakenews” in its caption.
Social media posts have shared a claim that the government has announced “mandatory digital ID implants” by 2026 to access services like banking and healthcare, but this is not true.
The claim appears to have come from a TikTok video posted on 21 February with more than 5,000 shares. That video shows a photo of the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with overlaid text reading: “Breaking News ‘Government Announces Mandatory ‘Digital ID Implants’ by 2026 to Access Banking and Healthcare’”, and a version of the BBC News theme music playing in the background. The same claim is shared in another TikTok video posted on 25 February with over 3,000 shares.
Some Facebook posts have shared a screenshot of the 21 February TikTok clip, while others share links to the later TikTok video with captions implying they believe the claim is genuine.
It’s not clear exactly what is meant by a “digital ID implant”, but we could find no evidence of any such announcement by the government. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) confirmed to Full Fact that the claim in the posts is false.
The government has enabled the use of certain digital identity services in the UK, which it says “give people another way to securely prove things about themselves, such as who they are or what their age is, without having to present physical documents”. However, we could find no evidence of plans to make digital ID “mandatory” to access banking or healthcare, or for there to be some kind of “digital ID implant”.
The government says the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which is currently being debated in Parliament, includes measures to create a framework for digital verification, but “without creating a mandatory digital ID system or introducing ID cards”.
Common examples of other digital ID technologies currently in use but that are not mandatory include using facial recognition to unlock phones, or scanning a passport at automated border security gates in airports.
Moreover, the caption of the original TikTok video includes the hashtag: “#fakenews”, and the user has shared other clips also using this hashtag with the same photo of Starmer and other unevidenced claims.
At Full Fact we sometimes check claims that may seem obviously false to some people because it may not be apparent to everyone—you can read more about this here.
We’ve debunked various claims about digital IDs before. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the government has confirmed this claim is not true.
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