There are now new dates for the removal of series 4, 5 and 6 smartcards from service:

• EPS prescription signing will be unavailable from 31 March 2025.
• Certificate renewal on series 4, 5 and 6 smartcards (Gemplus, JCOP41 & JCOP 41) will no longer be available from 31 March 2025.
• It’s planned that authentication with these smartcards will no longer be available in Q2 2025.
• Other national services may stop supporting series 4, 5 and 6 smartcards before this date.

You can read full details of this change in the updated deprecation notice.

Identifying older cards

Using Care Identity Management

Registration Authority Managers, Agents and Advanced Agents can use the reports functionality in Care Identity Management to identify older smartcards in their organisation.

Read how to use reports to find older smartcards.

Using the Diagnostic Tool

You can also use the NHS England Diagnostic Tool to identify smartcard series.

Within the tool:

• select ‘Card Reader Management’
• select the target smartcard reader where the smartcard is present

You’ll then see the smartcard series number in the details shown.

More information

For full details of what we’re doing and why, read this deprecation notice.

If plans change between now and the dates shown above we’ll update this page and the deprecation page.

Contact us

If you have any questions, contact us at iamplatforms@nhs.net