The government is to make digital versions of a range of official documents available via a dedicated app and a digital wallet, as part of what ministers say is an attempt to bring interactions with the public “in tune with modern life”.
Veteran cards and driving licences will be the first to be incorporated into a gov.uk wallet, which is being launched this year.
The government is also testing a chatbot which could be added to the app which would “help people find answers to complex and niche questions”.
Earlier, it was announced civil servants will soon be given access to a set of tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and named “Humphrey” after the scheming official from the classic sitcom Yes, Minister.
Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of trade body UKAI, welcomed the initiative but said the name risked “undermining” the government’s mission to embrace the tech.
“Humphrey for me is a name which is very associated with the Machiavellian character from Yes, Minister,” said Mr Flagg.
“That immediately makes people who aren’t in that central Whitehall office think that this is something which is not going to be empowering and not going to be helping them.”
Most of the tools in the Humphrey suite are generative AI models – in this case, technology which takes large amounts of information and summarises it in a more digestible format – to be used by the civil service.

In the shadow of Iceland’s largest geothermal power station, a large warehouse houses a hi-tech indoor farm of sorts that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Under a strange pink-purple glow, illuminated panels buzz and cylindrical columns of water bubble away as a futuristic crop of microalgae grows.
It’s here that Iceland’s Vaxa Technologies has developed a system that harnesses energy and other resources from the nearby power plant to cultivate these tiny aquatic organisms.
“It’s a new way of thinking about food production,” says general manager Kristinn Haflidason as he gives me a tour of the space-age facility.
For much of our history, humans have consumed seaweed, also known as macroalgae.
But its tiny relative, microalgae has been a less common food source, although it was eaten for centuries in ancient Central America and Africa.
Now scientists and entrepreneurs are increasingly exploring its potential as a nutrition-rich, sustainable food.
About 35 minutes from the capital Reykjavik, the Vaxa site produces the microalgae Nannochloropsis, both as food for people, and for feed in fish and shrimp farming.
It also grows a type of bacteria called Arthospira, also known as blue-green algae, as it shares similar properties with microalgae.
When dried out it is known as spirulina and is used as a dietary supplement, a food ingredient, and as a bright-blue food colouring.
These tiny organisms photosynthesise, capturing energy from light to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
“The algae is eating CO2, or turning the CO2 into biomass,” explains Mr Haflidason. “It’s carbon negative.”

Stargazers will be treated to a rare alignment of seven planets on 28 February when Mercury joins six other planets that are already visible in the night sky. Here’s why it matters to scientists.

Peer up at the sky on a clear night this January and February and you could be in for a treat. Six planets – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – are currently visible in the night sky. During just one night in late February, they will be joined by Mercury, a rare seven-planet alignment visible in the sky.
But such events are not just a spectacle for stargazers – they can also have a real impact on our Solar System and offer the potential to gain new insights into our place within it.
The eight major planets of our Solar System orbit the Sun in the same flat plane, and all at different speeds. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, completes an orbit – a year for the planet – in 88 days. Earth’s year, of course, is 365 days, while at the upper end, Neptune takes a whopping 60,190 days, or about 165 Earth years, to complete a single revolution of our star.
The different speeds of the planets mean that, on occasion, several of them can be roughly lined up on the same side of the Sun. From Earth, if the orbits line up just right, we can see multiple planets in our night sky at the same time. In rare events, all the planets will line up such that they all appear in our night sky together along the ecliptic, the path traced by the Sun.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune require binoculars or a telescope to spot.
In January and February, we can witness this event taking place. The planets are not exactly lined up, so they will appear in an arc across the sky due to their orbital plane in the Solar System. During clear nights in January and February, all of the planets except Mercury will be visible – an event sometimes called a planetary parade. On 28 February, though – weather permitting – all seven planets will be visible, a great spectacle for observers on the ground.
“There is something special about looking at the planets with your own eyes,” says Jenifer Millard, a science communicator and astronomer at Fifth Star Labs in the UK. “Yes, you can go on Google and get a more spectacular view of all these planets. But when you’re looking at these objects, these are photons that have travelled millions or billions of miles through space to hit your retinas.”