Following a successful small-scale trial, the NSW Government has announced it has introduced a digital version of its individual contractor licences.

The new digital trade licence, available within the Service NSW app, is the second trade licence and credential to be digitised by the NSW Government. It follows the launch last April of a digital ‘white card’ (also known as a general construction induction card).

The Government notes that more than 185,000 people have so far registered for and are using a digital white card.

Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Victor Dominello said the launch of the new digital contractor licence “will make it easier for people to do business across the state and for consumers looking to check a trade’.

He added that security “is baked into the digital licence”, offering the same features as other NSW state-issued digital licences: an animated NSW Government logo, auto-refreshing date and time, QR code that expires and reloads, and a Waratah hologram.

Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading Eleni Petinos also noted that an easily accessible digital trade licence ultimately strengthens consumer safeguards, particularly against instances of fraud or poor practice, enabling customers to quickly and securely confirm a contractor’s credentials on-site.

“Digital contractor licences will make it convenient for consumers to assess the qualifications of a tradesman prior to entering into a contract,” Petinos said.

“A digitised licence adds another layer of protection for consumers by allowing them to quickly check details such as name, date of issue and any conditions.”

Builders and tradespeople in NSW require an individual contractor licence to do legally engage in building work where the total cost of labour and materials is more than $5,000.

Contractors can still opt to use their existing physical card.

The licence digitisation, initially trialled by more than 1,400 tradespeople before its launch this week, was funded through the Department of Customer Service’s digital restart fund.

The NSW Government last week also introduced paperless vehicle registration, enabling drivers to opt-in to receive electronic reminder notices and access to digital Certificates of Registration through.

Customers who opt-in will receive reminder notifications six and two weeks before their registration expires and one day after via email, in their MyServiceNSW account and by push notifications in the Service NSW app.