Software retirement
We are now taking steps to permanently block the use of retired Care Identity Service software from the NHS estate.
If this page has opened while you are trying to log in using Identity Agent, you need to update to the latest version.
What we are doing
We have taken steps to permanently block the use of retired software from the NHS estate. This is as part of our ongoing focus on cyber resilience and security, in line with the current Warrantied Environment Specification that defines environments and applications that are supported by the NHS England Identity and Access Management team.
We used a phased approach, blocking software temporarily on specific times and dates, before blocking permanently at 8:00am on 7 May 2026.
If you are authenticating using any of the software or hardware listed below, authentication will fail and you will no longer be able to log in.
All Smartcard Connect versions are unaffected by this change. Read more about migrating from Identity Agent to Smartcard Connect.
Affected Identity Agent versions
The following versions of Identity Agent are now blocked:
- BT Identity Agent v13
- NHS Digital v1
- NHS Digital v2
- 2.1.2.16
- 2.2.1.0
- 2.2.2.0
- 2.2.3.7
- 2.2.3.9
- 2.3.0.0
- 2.3.2.0
- 2.4.5.0
- 2.4.6.0
How you'll know that software is retired
We use the ‘popup’ functionality within the Identity Agent software to remind users that they are using retired software and are blocked from authentication.
An example of this messaging is shown below.
Get the latest version
Last edited: 7 May 2026 8:27 am