Signicat certified under the UK digital identity framework - but the policy backdrop is not what the announcement says

Signicat has been certified against the UK’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework, covering its NFC-based document verification technology and its orchestration services.

The certification followed an independent audit by the Kantara Initiative and applies to three specific use cases: Right to Work, Right to Rent, and Disclosure and Barring Service checks. Those are the checks British employers, landlords and organisations working with children or vulnerable adults are legally required to carry out.

What the certification actually covers

DIATF is the UK’s rulebook for organisations providing digital identity and attribute services. It sets requirements around security, privacy, fraud controls and data handling, and it is overseen by the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Providers do not self-certify. They are audited by a conformity assessment body, and Kantara became the first such body accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service to certify against DIATF.

“Organisations and individuals spend an exorbitant amount of time and money trying to keep up with fragmented identity regulations across Europe and the UK,” said Ray Ryan, Signicat’s UK country manager. He said the certification “ensures regulated sectors have a unified, independently certified secure method to onboard staff and customers instantly, without leaving the door open to sophisticated fraud”.

Signicat is not the only one

The announcement does not mention that other providers hold the same certification for the same checks.

AU10TIX extended its DIATF certification to cover DBS checks, and GOV.UK One Login - the government’s own login service - regained DIATF certification through Kantara earlier this year. Certification here is a compliance threshold rather than a competitive moat: it says a provider meets the standard, not that it is alone in doing so.

That does not make it unimportant. For a company selling into regulated sectors, being able to point at an independent audit is the difference between being considered and not being considered.

The claim that does not hold

The release says the certification comes “following the UK government announcements ending the Digital Identity scheme, leaving the trust framework under the guidance of the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes as the key enabler of future Digital ID adoption in the UK.”

That is not what happened.

The Prime Minister announced a national digital ID scheme in September 2025, initially proposed as mandatory for right to work checks. That proposal was scaled back, not scrapped. In March 2026 the Cabinet Office opened a public consultation on a national digital ID system, which closed on 5 May 2026 and is being followed by a “People’s Panel on Digital ID”.

In other words the national scheme is still an active policy question under consultation, not a closed one. The trust framework was never contingent on it, and OfDIA’s role has not changed as a result.

The second half of the claim is closer to the mark. DIATF is the operative mechanism for certified digital identity in the UK today, and the framework is moving on: beta certifications expired on 31 March 2026, and version 1.0 of the Digital Verification Services framework comes into force from 1 September 2026, or from the date at least one conformity assessment body is accredited against the 1.0 scheme, whichever is later.

Why it matters

The distinction is not pedantry. “The government ended its digital ID scheme, so the trust framework is what matters now” is a tidier sales story than “the government is still consulting on a national scheme, and the trust framework operates alongside whatever it decides.”

Buyers in regulated sectors are making procurement decisions against a policy backdrop that is genuinely unsettled. The certification is real and independently audited. The account of why it matters is doing more work than the record supports.

We have approached Signicat about the characterisation and will update this piece if the company responds.