GOV.UK Wallet
GOV.UK Wallet lets users save and share digital versions of their government documents on their smartphone or device.
Issuing a document as a government service
If you work in a central government department, you can use GOV.UK Wallet to issue digital and verifiable versions of the physical documents you issue already as part of your service.
Before you can issue credentials to GOV.UK Wallet, you must already be using GOV.UK One Login in your service to log in your users or verify their identities. You should discuss using GOV.UK Wallet with your GOV.UK One Login Engagement Manager, or contact us.
This documentation helps people such as developers and product managers of services that are using GOV.UK One Login to:
- learn how to issue digitally verifiable credentials to GOV.UK Wallet as part of their service journey
- understand how GOV.UK Wallet works for credential issuers
- prepare your service to use GOV.UK Wallet
- understand how organisations and individuals can receive and validate digital credentials you have issued when presented by the holder
Using and consuming a document
You will be able to consume credentials from GOV.UK Wallet if you are:
- a public sector organisation (such as central government, the NHS, or a local authority)
- a certified Digital Verification Services (DVS) provider on the digital identity and attribute services register
This documentation helps developers and service teams in these organisations to:
- understand how GOV.UK wallet works for consuming credentials
- understand the open standards that will allow their service to consume and verify credentials and attributes
This documentation will be updated as new information and features become available.
Digital verification services should read the guidance about using GOV.UK Wallet in the digital identity sector to understand the different models available.
Documentation updates
These are the most recent changes to the GOV.UK Wallet technical documentation.
| Publication date | Update |
|---|---|
| Jul 10 2025 | Clarify requirements for date fields in JWT VC credentials: Remove Optional claims exp and nbf. Update guidance on credential expiration. Specify validFrom and validUntil must be expressed in ISO 8601 format with seconds. Update validUntil to be a Required claim. |
| Jul 03 2025 | Remove credentialSubject, display and key_attestations_required parameters, and rename cryptographic_suites_supported to credential_signing_alg_values_supported in Metadata API. |
| Jul 02 2025 | Update the second value for @context property in DID Document. |
| Jun 26 2025 | Update guidance on credential photos. |
| Jun 19 2025 | Update proof of possession iat claim description. Add Cache-Control with value of no-store to Notification and Credential APIs. Add 400 Bad Request response to Credential API. |
| May 29 2025 | Add a 401 Unauthorized response to the Credential API. |
| May 28 2025 | Update the Notification API 401 Unauthorized response format to comply with RFC 6750 (Bearer Token Usage). |
| May 14 2025 | Add Consuming and verifying credentials section for credential consumer and verifier documentation. Update GOV.UK Wallet page with new introductory content for new section. |
| Apr 23 2025 | Restructure ‘What GOV.UK Wallet does, and how it works’ into a ‘GOV.UK Wallet’ introductory page and a ‘How GOV.UK Wallet works’ page. Remove ‘Understand GOV.UK Wallet’s credential exchange flow’ page, and move issuance flow diagram and steps into the new ‘How GOV.UK Wallet works’ page. |
| Apr 16 2025 | Begin recording changes in a changelog. |