Topics The Government Digital Service (GDS) will focus on joining up services, identities and data over the next three years, its chief executive Tom Read has said. In a blog on GDS’s strategy from 2021 to 2024, Read outlined five goals for the service with three concerned with joining up. One is to set up a single digital identity system covering all departments that will learn from the experience of GOV.UK Verify, which was recently extended to April 2023. Read said this identity system has to work for everyone, including someone leaving prison who does not have a fixed address, and will only integrate or replace existing services “when the new service has been tested thoroughly, and everyone is happy that it works as it needs to”.