The UK is funnily backwards about some things. In particular, they have neither national ID cards, nor a population registry. You end up sending utility bills to the government as proof of address.

It can be an absolute farce. I signed up for a GP, still living with my parents, they needed proof of address which I obviously don't have because I didn't pay for the water bill, so instead they accepted a written note from my father who provided no ID, and wasn't registered at the GP.

That may sound relatively minor but if I were doing some ID fraud it's all I would've needed to get started i.e. you need the first level of trust to exploit.

The British state is carefully designed to have the nationalized and privatized parts in the wrong places.