Scotland’s Improvement Service is planning to broaden the functions of its myaccount single sign-in system for public services.
It has indicated that it aims to introduce new tools and services over the year to help local authorities provide different routes for people to prove who they are, online and offline.
This is part of a wider effort by the Scottish public sector to develop new approaches for digital identities for the public to access services.
The Improvement Service, which supports local government in the country, did not make any details of new functions for myaccount public, but said it is looking at elements such as workflows and processes to help councils follow the same model for identity proofing through common standards.
In addition, it is looking at the necessary processes, checks and balances and the training, support and advice available.
Need for further reach
The plan comes in response to an acknowledgement that, although myaccount has almost 1 million registered subscribers, it is not yet reaching some groups such as younger or vulnerable people, and that these often lack identity evidence or a digital footprint to access services securely.
“We know we can’t make this happen on our own,” the Improvement Service said. “Over the coming months, the Improvement Service will deepen its engagement with all local authorities around the developments and of the relevance and importance of them towards building a trusted public sector identity that meets the standards laid down by government.”
In 2018 the organisation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Scottish Government to spread the use of myaccount, and in 2019 it approved the use of the Yoti digital identity app for verification with the service.
It related the effort to the wider work on digital identities. The Digital Identity Scotland unit in the Scottish Government has begun to build a prototype of a new online identity assurance system for public services in the country.
