Apply for a voter authority certificate beta assessment
This service enables electors who do not already have an accepted form of photographic ID they wish to use for voting in polling stations to apply for a new form of photographic identification called a Voter Authority Certificate.
Service Standard report
Apply for a voter authority certificate
| From: | Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) |
| Assessment date: | 29/11/2022 |
| Stage: | Beta |
| Result: | Met with advice |
| Service provider: | DLUHC |
Previous assessment reports
Service description
This service enables electors who do not already have an accepted form of photographic ID they wish to use for voting in polling stations to apply for a new form of photographic identification called a Voter Authority Certificate.
Electors will be required to identify themselves by showing an approved form of photographic identification before casting their vote in a polling station at:
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UK Parliamentary elections;
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local elections in England;
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local referendums in England; and
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Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales.
Electors in GB who do not have an accepted form of photographic identification (defined in Schedule 1 of the Elections Act 2022), can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate - a photographic identification document available free of charge from their local Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for the purposes of voting in polling stations.
Service users
Primary users
- local authority election workers including electoral registration officers (EROs)
- electors entitled to vote who do not already have an accepted form of photo ID they want to use
Indirect users/beneficiaries
- citizens are entitled to vote with a valid photo ID
- polling clerks
Assessment panel commentary
Notwithstanding the good work by the project and service teams on ‘Apply for a Voter Authority Certificate’, the panel highlights that there is still significant risk to the wider digital and non-digital service for voting with photo ID planned to be used for the first time in the national local authority elections in May 2023.
Similarly, the panel recommends that focusing on the bigger picture service of voting with an acceptable photo ID rather than the current narrower service of electors entitled to vote without accepted form of ID, would increase the opportunity of success against the original objectives and benefits of the policy.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- there was a strong, team-based approach to user research and everyone demonstrated a solid understanding of the users and their needs
- the team utilised a range of appropriate research methods that were well executed
- sampling has been based on reliable data regarding those who might be disadvantaged by having to provide identification. Research has focussed on those groups
- the user profiles and user needs were of high quality and evidence-based. It was clear how the team were using them effectively in their work
- research has been undertaken with those not currently registered to vote to understand any additional barriers providing identification might cause. This collaborative work with the register to vote service should continue through the public beta
- the team demonstrated a good understanding of the problems they still need to solve for users and have a credible roadmap to address them
- the team have done an admirable job in challenging timescales and with multiple constraints to demonstrate as best they’re able that the service works for everyone
What the team needs to explore
Before local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- focus research activities to understand whether the service enables all citizens entitled to vote to achieve their goal – casting a vote in person using a photo ID
- continue efforts to identify and do research with EROs with accessibility needs
- ensure the size and quality of the research team is maintained. Changing or reducing it would pose a significant risk to a successful public beta
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- users will be signposted to the certificate service from the end of the register to vote service and can complete both applications on the same day
- polling cards will include local ERO contact details, meaning voters have an offline route to apply or for support
- the team has worked hard to discover, and pass on, insights about the usability of parts of the service that they don’t control, such as the wording on the polling card, the PDF application form, and the confirmation letter sent by EROs
What the team needs to explore
Before local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- not limit themselves to the narrower element of the voter authority certificate service, but focus on the whole problem for users which is voting with photo ID for the first time
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service met point 3 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- when a voter switches from the digital service to the PDF form, values they have already entered in the digital service are automatically populated in the PDF
- the application confirmation email and letter give the voter local ERO contact details – a voter might need this if, for example, their certificate doesn’t turn up
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- consider the end to end user journey including forthcoming marketing materials and communications messaging to understand whether the problem will be solved
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the digital service pre-populates the email address field if the voter has previously given it in the service
- the team is continuing co-designing with EROs, planning to provide sorting options for the application list, for example
- EROs can correct some photo issues in the portal, reducing the burden on voters to get the photo absolutely right - the team is looking into what other photo corrections they may be able to make
- the team will try to reduce the need for instructional content for the ERO portal, building what’s needed into the portal screens, where possible
What the team needs to explore
Before Local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- check all content to ensure it’s in as plain English as possible
- explain on screen why they are being asked for contact details – it’s not clear why they’re asked for at the specific points they are, at the moment (if it’s for the same reason each time, a user need only be asked for it once)
- for further iterations, start with minimal content and with one thing per screen, only adding in more content, and combining things into one screen, where they have evidence that that works better for their users
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
● there’s a signpost to offline help on every screen
● the needs of a wide range of people have been considered, including trans people and people who cover their faces for religious reasons
● the service makes clear to voters that expired photo ID is accepted
● the team has checked that EROs will give support to voters - including face to face support - where they have difficulty completing their application, for example with printing the PDF form or taking a digital photo
What the team needs to explore
Before Local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- fix all A and AA non-compliant issues raised in the accessibility audit and update the digital service’s accessibility statement
- raise with the wider programme the risk associated with using a PDF form, as described in the GDS content review
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service met point 6 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- there’s been significant investment in creating and supporting a well-equipped multidisciplinary team to deliver the phase to time, features and quality
- the team was supported to be able to onboard extra performance analyst resources when the project needed it
- there is clear engagement, challenge and buy-in from a range of senior stakeholders
- we saw input from different talents in the team
- there are clear plans and senior support for resourcing the team for the next phase of activity and during operational service
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- with a large proportion of contractors compared to civil servants, for sustainability and for a lower risk profile, there is a need to prioritise efforts to bring key public beta team roles in-house rather than relying on contracts
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service met point 7 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has maintained close collaborative relationships with key stakeholders including the Electoral Commission and LA EROs conducive to achieving shared goals
- the team has balanced prioritising the needs of LA users as well as those of citizens
- the service team explained examples of where the team have demonstrated agile ways of working and pivoted accordingly
- they have been clear about the constraints under which they have operated within
- they have developed a complimentary design system with bespoke elements including the administration of the photo identification which they will look to feed back into the central GDS design system that could to create sustainable outcomes across government
- they understand the potential issues with multiple suppliers and teams and have devised agile ways of working to mitigate communication and team working
What the team needs to explore
Before Local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- demonstrate working across government as ‘one team’ towards working to the larger objective of voting with photo ID and reducing risk
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- their approach has involved a team-wide mentality towards user-centred iterative design and development
- the team demonstrated how they iterated the LA and citizen-facing products including how they changed following their user research
- through trials and diary studies they iterated their approach to the complex photo upload problem
What the team needs to explore
Before Local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- change and look at the service as the whole digital and non-digital ‘vote using photo ID’ to benefit from seeing the bigger picture of a successful voting experience for users and a reduction in voter fraud
- engrain KPIs and benefits including those that link to the original ‘vote using photo ID’ objectives and risks into their improvement process
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service met point 9 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- consideration had been given to user data and privacy, implementing effective role based access control
- the team had ensured they implemented antivirus protection on uploads, removing the risks associated with accepting files from users
- the team has patterns for vulnerability scanning in development and production. There is extensive monitoring in place using Cloudwatch
- the team have worked closely with GDS and NCSC on security design
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure there is a plan to continue with proactive cyber security alerting and monitoring as they / if they move from cabinet office accounts and components
- consider the segregation of data for DUHLC admin users
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that the team:
- had developed a set of success metrics based on the stated goals of the service, and were able to access the appropriate data easily
- had good examples of how the data had helped them make decisions and influenced the development of the service
- is collecting detailed feedback from Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to help them understand how they use the service
- was sharing and visualising the data on their dashboard
- had two knowledgeable performance analysts, each focused on either the citizen-facing service or ERO portal
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
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the stated goals of the service are to ensure that users are aware of the need to have acceptable photo ID to vote in person, and to provide Voter Authority Certificates for those without it. Before their next assessment, the panel would like the team to consider success metrics from a broader interpretation of the service’s aims. Voter ID is being introduced to help eliminate the risk of electoral fraud:
- how can its success in achieving this be measured? What benchmarks exist?
- there’s a risk that eligible voters will be prevented from voting if they are unaware of the need for ID and do not bring the appropriate documents to the polling station: How can this be measured? What information will allow this risk to be minimised?
- how can the additional time taken to process voters be measured and reduced? What benchmarks exist?
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service met point 11 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team had been able to reuse some of the components and patterns from the Register to Vote service
- suitable resilient architectural decisions, decoupled patterns and scalable services were used, and that coupled with performance testing was used to ensure the platform should be able to deal with unpredictable traffic during elections
- worked with AWS to manage quota provisioning and them to ensure enhanced support arrangements in the run up to election deadlines
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- carefully integrate back with the main register to vote application de-risking any potential outages to either service
- further consider the role GOVUK One Login and Identity program could / will have on the citizen facing platform
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service met with recommendations point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team brings enthusiasm and contributions to existing open source code and new blog posts furthering explanations of technology achievements
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- having looked at the number of repositories they were able to make open source they should ensure all candidate repositories are open sourced
- continue to look for opportunities to open source and contribute back to other projects
13.Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- error messages seem to consistently follow the design system pattern
- the team is engaging with the wider ID community in government and plans to use the GDS ID service once that’s available
- the ERO portal will eventually use Notify to generate notifications
- for the portal, the team has looked at existing internal services from across the government and based new components on principles in the design system – they now have a library of bespoke and experimental patterns that they plan to share with the cross government design community
What the team needs to explore
Before local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- finish the work of making radio button questions consistent with the design system pattern for radios (for example removing conditionally revealed radios, and the fact there are multiple inputs that are conditionally revealed)
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address any issues raised in the GDS content review
- identify all the places where the service has deviated from the specifics of standard components and patterns and ensure there is a validated user needs to do have done so (for example using a ‘exit’ button on the confirmation page, and having the H1 and radio options separated by long explanatory text on a question page)
14.Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service met point 14 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has checked that EROs have a range of means they can employ to ensure that delays (such as postal strikes) need not prevent a someone from voting - for example, they might use very local printing points to produce a temporary certificate for a voter
- if a voter loses or damages their certificate too close to an election to produce a new certificate, there’s an emergency proxy voter procedure that can be put in place up until 5pm on election day
What the team needs to explore
Before local or parliamentary national elections, the team needs to:
- consider how to reassure users, as we get nearer an election, about how they will be provided with a certificate in time - users will be given ERO contact details on their confirmation notification, but they may need some reassurance in the digital service itself (this currently tells the user that it can take up to a month)
- continue growing their understanding of the support EROs are providing so that they can be certain that it’s reaching groups that are more likely to need support to get a certificate
Next Steps
This service can now move into a public beta phase, subject to implementing the recommendations outlined in the report and getting approval from the CDDO spend control team.
The panel recommends this service makes the suggested changes before the local or parliamentary national elections. Please speak to your Digital Engagement Manager to address making the changes as soon as possible.
To get the service ready to launch on GOV.UK the team needs to:
- get a GOV.UK service domain name
- work with the GOV.UK content team on any changes required to GOV.UK content