Voter identification
Updated 28 October 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 amends existing legislation to permit the use of UK-issued bank cards as an accepted form of voter ID in Great Britain, providing the bank card is presented in physical form, is in date and shows the elector’s name as displayed on the register.
Bank cards are held by the overwhelming majority of the electorate and research we conducted shows that the proportion of the UK population without a form of accepted ID falls from 2–4% to less than 1% if bank cards are included in the list. This change will therefore allow a greater proportion of legitimate electors to more easily meet the voter identification requirements.
This change is particularly important to ensure that those who are less likely to hold photo ID – such as electors with disabilities and younger electors – are effectively able to engage with the democratic process and have their voices heard.
Enabling secure use of digital photo ID
Current legislation does not prevent the use of digital versions of photo ID in the polling station, such as the digital Veteran Card which became available last year and the forthcoming digital driving licence. 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. The legislation will also allow for future programmatic checking of digital ID.