More stupidly, the UK has effectively hard national ID requirements (have to show ID and proof of residence/employment visa status in order to work, rent privately; ID checks on having a bank account and house purchases etc), but no national ID.

Often utility bills get used instead.

(I was actually part of the NO2ID campaign because we anticipated that it would be used for essentially discriminatory purposes like this, as well as the giant highly vulnerable database. It never occcured to us that they could impose ID requirements without issuing the cards!)

No it doesn’t. Neither a driving licence or a passport are manidtory in the UK.

Additionally a driving licence isn’t considered a form of national ID (despite many people treating it like one)

Nope. Can you explain your thinking, please?