New standard for secure digital ID checks

In March, HM Land Registry launched its first Digital Identity Standard, providing a step-by-step check list for conveyancers using digital services to securely verify their client’s identity online.

The new standard is optional but offers a ‘safe harbour’ for those conveyancers who meet the requirements, meaning that the Land Registry would not seek recourse against conveyancers who comply, in the event their client was not who they claimed to be.

CILEX is committed to supporting innovation and the growth of legal technology in the conveyancing sector and worked closely with the Land Registry on the new digital standard which “marks an exciting milestone towards a truly digital conveyancing process,” according to Mike Harlow, general counsel, deputy chief executive and deputy chief land registrar.

The pandemic has seen the conveyancing sector put under a great deal of pressure, dealing with lockdown restrictions and social distancing whilst handling high levels of demand due to the Chancellor’s stamp duty holiday.

Mr Harlow said: “In a challenging year, we set up a cross-industry forum to support our conveyancing colleagues. First, we brought in electronic signatures to remove any need for paper in conveyancing. Now, through this same collaboration, we are able to bring a new digital identity standard to reduce the risk of fraud and make transactions a more digital, easier and faster experience.”

The digital standard makes identity verification much more convenient as it can be done at any time, without the need to meet physically, for all clients whether residential or commercial. It also provides enhanced security by requiring the use of smartphones to extract encrypted information contained within the chips of documents such as passports.

The Land Registry plans to develop and tailor the standard by “widening the scope to incorporate different legal entities and to explore the availability of more enhanced digital means of obtaining evidence to link the party to the transaction with the particular property.”