GOV.UK Verify was a service run by the Government Digital Service (GDS). They relied on commercial TSPs to provide a range of activities aimed at confirming the identity of an individual. They used a set of rules specified by HM Government, the issuance of a set of credentials to the individual, and a level-of-assurance token that enabled Government Service Providers to match an individual to records they held. TSPs who provided services to GDS were subject to approval under the ‘Verify Scheme’. This defined the range of activities they had to carry out and the criteria they had to meet, and included requiring tScheme approval for delivering services against specific Profiles. These TSP’s were often referred to as Identity Providers.
For the Verify Scheme, tScheme used a combination of core profiles with specific extensions to underpin the independent assessments.
TSPs wishing to provide services to GOV.UK Verify had to go through the tScheme Approval Assessment and Approval process which resulted in notification to GDS - the Verify Scheme Authority.
The final approval decision then lay with GDS as the Verify Scheme Authority.
The Verify service closed in April 2023.