Managing Citizen Identity Information in E-Government Service Relationships in the UK

Governments are introducing new digital Identity Management (IDM) systems into public service relationships with citizens. These IDM systems not only can support governments in their modernization efforts, they are also expected to lead to significant informational changes in the citizen–government relationships. Thus far however, there is little empirical knowledge available about what changes are occurring in these emerging e-government service relationships as a result of using new IDM systems. With that, important questions arise as to how ‘citizen identity information’ and ‘identity management’ are being reconstructed conceptually in new forms of public service provision; and what the managerial, governance and democratic implications are of the deployment of these digital IDM systems in the relationship between the individual and the State. This contribution provides some empirically supported answers to these important questions.