News from 2 September 2026
Read the current guide to tenancy rules in England.
England’s government code for digital identity services was updated on 1 September 2026. Version 1.1 changes requirements for the services used in digital Right to Rent checks, including their handling of recently expired British and Irish passports.
What has changed in version 1.1?
The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes says version 1.1 reflects new Home Office regulations that enable expired passports to be used during digital right to rent checks. Under the code, a British passport, Irish passport or Irish passport card may be used to create the identity. If the document is expired, it must have expired no more than six months before the date of the check.
An expired document must also pass additional validation. The code says its cryptographic security features must be confirmed as genuine, while the passport or card must not be visibly clipped. The identity check must meet at least a medium level of confidence under the government’s identity-checking standard.
Version 1.0, published earlier in 2026, never came into force. The government says no conformity assessment body was accredited to certify services against it, and certification will instead move to version 1.1. The new code comes into force when the first conformity assessment body is accredited to certify against it, and that date can be no earlier than 1 September 2026. Landlords should therefore avoid treating publication alone as confirmation that the new certification regime is already operational.
How the code relates to your checks
The government expressly says the supplementary code does not create new requirements or recommendations for landlords. Those requirements remain in Home Office regulations and the landlord’s guide to right to rent checks. Instead, the code sets rules for the digital verification services that conduct checks on holders of British and Irish passports or Irish passport cards.
That distinction is important. Using a digital service does not transfer the whole compliance task to the provider. The code states that landlords still need to obtain and retain specified information from the service and check that the person whose identity was verified is the same person who presents themselves to rent the property.
The result supplied by a compliant service should include the person’s name, date of birth, passport image, user photograph, date of the identity check and the name of the service. It should also confirm whether the service was certified and registered at the time of the check, state that the check was provided in accordance with the supplementary code, and provide a link to the service’s entry on the digital verification services register.
