Josh Simons MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Digitising right-to-work checks means two things. First, it will be easier for businesses to check people’s right to work and for citizens to prove their right to work, adding simplicity to the system and taking away the paper-based documents that can often open the way for fraud. Secondly, and crucially, it will allow a record of businesses that have conducted checks. That is the basis of tougher enforcement, which is the ultimate goal: tougher enforcement against those who hire people illegally, which undermines British workers and produces a pull factor that keeps illegal migration coming. That is what we are committed to solving, and why digitising right-to-work checks matters.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  We announced the intention to roll out digital ID cards, and I have clarified today that those will be free for anyone who wants one. We will consult on how to make that maximally useful for every British person who wants a Government who work better for them. That is what we will do.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I can assure my hon. Friend that the consultation will involve going right across the country to the places where people live, to listen, to engage and to build a consensus on the scheme’s design. I should also underscore that the status quo is that we are not making enough effort to reach people who are digitally excluded and ID-excluded. This programme will involve one of the biggest digital inclusion drives in the history of the Government, to reach those people so that they can access services. I, for one, am proud of that.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I too believe in freedom. Any good digital system must be trusted; if it is not trusted, it does not work. That point will be at the heart of the consultation that we will publish in a few weeks. The system that we build will give citizens more control and information about how their data is used and who accesses it. It will be decentralised, with strong firewalls between data sets, so that there is no central data storage, beyond data that the Government already hold. It will hold the minimum possible data needed to serve ordinary people better.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I think I understood the hon. Member’s question, so let me have a crack at answering it. I will address the second part of her question first. The constituents who email her, who will find this scheme useful, are asking for more joined-up public services. They are asking not to have to fight the Government to get things that they are entitled to, which is what this scheme will deliver. On the first part of her question, there is a distinction between digitising the right-to-work checks so that we can toughen up illegal labour market enforcement, which is what the Prime Minister underscored yesterday, and the digital ID, which will be free and voluntary for anyone who wants it.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  As I said to the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns), there will be strong safeguards in the legislation about how the scheme is used over time, and the hon. Member will be able to scrutinise them. He should feed in his thoughts about how that legislation should be structured to the consultation, which will open in a few weeks’ time.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The digital ID database will be based on the principle of data minimisation. The minimum possible data that the Government already have will be stored about every individual citizen, so that we can do what we need to do, which is join up public services better.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The digital ID scheme will be funded within existing settlements and conversations about that are ongoing.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I think the hon. Gentleman was lost for a moment there as he was contemplating the implosion of his shadow Cabinet once again, which I can wholly understand. Details of how the scheme will be used will come after the consultation. I invite him to tell us, in the consultation, how he thinks it could be useful for him to access childcare if he so needs and chooses.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question. To confirm, the digital ID will be free and available to every eligible UK citizen who wants one. The consultation will invite people all over the country to tell us how it could be useful in dealing with the daily struggles that they face. We have a range of use cases available to us. In the decades ahead, every time there is an information boundary problem, every time public services are not properly joined up, and every time citizens of this country are frustrated by the need to chase Government Departments to get them to share information properly, a digital credential that is free for everyone will help to solve that problem.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Talking and listening to people is what I believe in. That is why we will be launching a major public consultation and will be out across the country talking to people about their frustrations with the public services that the Conservative party left to rot for 14 years. We will build the public goods and the digital infrastructure we need to fix them.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  As I have mentioned before to the hon. Gentleman and in the House, the design and delivery of the scheme will be subject to the consultation that we will launch in a few weeks. Choices will be made about the scheme in that consultation. After those choices are made, we will have much more detailed costings available to the House. The crucial thing is this: nations all over the world that have already developed digital ID programmes have realised massive, significant and quantified savings. Let me give an example: India’s digital ID programme has saved an estimated $10 billion per year by ensuring that public resources are accurately targeted at those who are eligible to receive them. That is what this Government will be doing, too.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  There was quite a lot in the hon. Gentleman’s question, but I will do my level best to answer it. Digital right-to-work checks will make it easier for those who have a digital ID to prove their right to work. Crucially, it will make it easier for employers to check people’s right to work. That will benefit our economy. When a digital right-to-work check is done, it creates a record. That is a key piece of information that this Government will use, alongside the other ways we are toughening up our illegal working regime, to ensure we are enforcing against employers who are undercutting British workers by hiring people illegally.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I am, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am proud that this Labour Government are building this vital public infrastructure to make Government work better for everyone.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Trust is vital—digital tools work only when they are trusted. In the consultation that we will publish in the coming weeks, Members will see that trust is at the heart of how we build the system for working people.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Let me answer the hon. Gentleman by stepping back for a moment and stating clearly what British citizens and taxpayers will get. Digital IDs will be rolled out for free to everyone who wants one. If anyone does not want one, they do not have to have one. People will be able to use that credential to prove their right to work digitally by the end of this Parliament, which will make it easier for businesses to check people’s right to work and enable tougher enforcement against illegal working. We will harness the potential of this credential to deliver a transformation in digital government and public services. I, for one, am tired of constituents being frustrated by basic problems caused by a lack of joined-up government that we should have fixed decades ago, and by not having control of their public services at their fingertips. This is free, voluntary digital infrastructure, and a foundation for public service improvement and private sector innovation, that we should have built years ago, as the hon. Gentleman’s predecessors in the last Conservative Government recognised, but of course we did not do it. As the British people know very well, given the way that they passed judgment at the last election, the Conservatives gave up governing this country properly. They gave up on reforming the state and they gave up making government work better for ordinary people. This Government will not do so.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for what I think were three questions, all of which I will try to answer. Our job in building this voluntary scheme, where people can get an ID if they want one, is to make it useful and effective. It is on us to figure out how to do that, and that is what we will be doing. The consultation will have more information about the modelling that he is after, and that will be published in the coming weeks. Once we have made the design choices about how to make the system maximally useful for people, further costs will then be published for the House. On the third question, the digital right-to-work checking system will be developed alongside the digital ID programme.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I will feed those comments back to the relevant Secretary of State.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend that it is vital that people trust any digital product and system that this Government build. Trust has to be at the heart of everything we do. We will put trust at the heart of the consultation that will be published in a few weeks, and we will explain more about how we will do that. To be really clear, though, the reason why the digital ID connects public services is that at the moment, there is no mechanism for the Government to join up public services based on what an individual wants. If somebody wants to share information across Government services to get something—their childcare, for instance—they should be able to do so, having given consent. That is what this digital ID will unlock.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  About 25% of UK citizens do not have a passport, and 15% of people have never had a passport. There are millions of people right across this country who are currently digitally excluded, which affects their capacity to access vital services in the public sector and the private sector. I want those people to be part of our public services and our economy just like everyone else, and we will make every effort to reach them.

• 15 Jan 2026 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman talks about flapping in the wind. He might have noticed that one person will be flapping in the wind: the shadow Justice Secretary, the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick), who I believe has just been sacked by the Leader of the Opposition for secret plots to defect to another Opposition party. I wonder if the hon. Gentleman wants to ask him whether he is flapping in the wind.