Speeches by Onwurah.

“That is very helpful, Chief Secretary. The services to be onboarded will not only be national Government services; they might be local government services as well. How will you decide or who will decide what services come on board?”

“Are you using the same commitment for this system?”

“That was a commitment for mandatory digital ID.”

“When will you be able to use digital ID for your right to work check?”

“The digital right to work check is a service that you have committed to, so you will have to onboard all the digital right to work data. Will you have to have the interfaces for that?”

“Ultimately, the benefits are when people use it. For people to use it, it has to access data that is already there, such as data about veterans, the 10 million data records for e-visas and so on, so then you come up against all the legacy system issues. How will you access individual data, just to put in place the digi…”

“People will benefit from the digital ID Bill only once it is being used. Do you see e-visas, for example, being migrated on to the digital ID?”

“On that comparison, Mr Tapp talked about security by design being built in. We heard that there were 90 legacy systems on which the e-visa system was built. I guess this is a question for both of you: how are you addressing the legacy system issue across Government?”

“I am trying to understand what lessons you are learning from the e-visa roll-out in order to support the roll-out of digital ID.”

“So you should be able to send the Committee a figure for that?”

“Do you monitor how many issues are arising?”

“How many problems?”

“That is interesting, because we heard evidence about a significant number of errors throughout 2025. Automated responses to web form submissions cited delays due to higher inquiry volumes. We have also heard of issues of people with multiple visas and not being able to access their own visas. Are you saying that these …”

“We have heard from the organisation the3million, the name of which reflects the number of people that it thinks have been adversely affected by issues with the e-visa system. Are you reassuring us that those issues have been rectified, as far as you are aware?”

“Yes.”

“I am particularly interested in the e-visa system. My Committee, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, is looking at digital transformation. The e-visa system has 10 million people on it now, so it is probably the closest example of what digital ID requires—the scale of that is 60 million. That is why I was…”

“You are responsible for digital ID across the whole of Government, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is responsible for the implementation and execution of it.”

“That is a very basic answer. One of the examples—I think it was given to this Committee—was of somebody whose photograph was not the right photograph in their e-visa record. That is an issue of data security. I am not quite sure why you cannot tell me how you are addressing that.”

“There are direct flights from Newcastle to Dubai, and many Geordies in the region, including in the armed forces, so I thank the Prime Minister for the steps he is taking to support and protect them, and particularly for acting within international law. Iran is a murderous, despotic state that has frequently threatened…”

“I thank the hon. Member for that answer. I believe that Parliament can—indeed must—use AI to improve our productivity, but it must be used securely, ethically, effectively and in the public interest. A poll by Brunel University has said that 80% of the public reject the idea of AI assisting parliamentarians or replacin…”