Voter identification
Published 12 February 2026
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Representation of the People Bill 2026: Voter identification
This government believes that it is unacceptable for legitimate voters to be prevented or discouraged from voting, and any barriers to voting must be addressed.
While we believe it is appropriate to retain the requirement to show ID to protect electors from the risk of personation, the current voter ID rules are too restrictive. We are therefore bringing forward changes to allow the use of UK-authorised bank cards at the polling station. This will allow a greater proportion of legitimate electors to more easily meet the voter identification requirements.
We are also modernising the legislation with regards to digital forms of IDs, to require that they must be verifiable by a visual inspection feature in order to be accepted – for example a digital hologram.
Summary of the measures in the Bill
Bank cards as voter ID
The Representation of the People Bill 2026 will amend legislation to permit the use of UK-issued bank cards as an accepted form of voter ID in Great Britain, providing the bank card displays the elector’s name as displayed on the register.
Research we conducted shows that the proportion of the UK population without a form of accepted ID would fall from 2-4% to less than 1% if bank cards are included which suggests that those without an accepted form of ID are very likely to have access to a UK-issued physical bank card. This change will therefore allow a greater proportion of legitimate electors to more easily meet the voter identification requirements.
Enabling secure use of digital photo ID
Current legislation does not prevent the use of digital versions of Voter ID such as the digital Veteran Card which became available last year and the digital driving licence which is due by the end of this year. In order to ensure that only valid digital IDs are used and not photographs or screenshots, we are legislating to require that they are able to be checked visually - for example via a digital hologram or live clock.