OPDA Knowledge base
Concept tier claim

Assurance Level

opda:AssuranceLevel

Assurance Level

An Assurance Level is the quality grade on a Claim’s verification — Low, Substantial, or High, per the eIDAS framework adopted by OPDA.

Why it matters

Not all verifications are equal. A self-asserted Claim has lower assurance than a Vouch; a Vouch has lower assurance than an Electronic Record retrieved live from HMRC; an Electronic Record has lower assurance than a court-issued Document. The Assurance Level surfaces that hierarchy in a controlled vocabulary so downstream consumers can apply policy (“require Substantial for AML purposes”) without reinventing the grading.

If you are a lender, AML officer, or compliance auditor with a minimum-assurance policy, this is the entity that your policy references.

Hard cases

  • Vouch ceiling. Vouch Evidence caps at Low regardless of voucher quality. The Assurance Level cannot exceed the cap even if the Verification Activity is otherwise impeccable.
  • Downgrade on evidence-chain weakening. A Claim’s strongest Evidence is withdrawn (e.g. probate revoked); only weaker Evidence remains. A fresh Verification Activity produces a lower Assurance Level; the previous higher Level persists in the audit trail.
  • Combined evidence promotion. A Vouch + an Electronic Record together may justify Substantial where either alone would not. The promotion is governed by the Trust Framework’s combination rules.

Identity Criterion

Each Assurance Level is identified by its scheme member URI — e.g. eidas:Low, eidas:Substantial, eidas:High. The values are a closed enumeration. See the Logical tier → for the typed structure and the enumeration scheme.

  • Verification Activity — assigns an Assurance Level to a verified Claim
  • Claim — inherits its Assurance Level from the Verification Activity that produced its verified form
  • Trust Framework — defines the assurance-level scheme
%%{init: {"theme": "base"}}%% flowchart LR accTitle: Assurance Level related-Kinds neighbourhood graph accDescr: Assurance Level as a closed three-member enumeration (eIDAS Low, Substantial, High) assigned by a Verification Activity; the scheme is defined by the Trust Framework; Vouch Evidence is capped at Low. classDef centre fill:#E1BEE7,stroke:#6A1B9A,stroke-width:3px,color:#4A148C classDef cls fill:#B3E5FC,stroke:#0277BD,stroke-width:2px,color:#01579B classDef warning fill:#FFF9C4,stroke:#F9A825,stroke-width:2px,color:#F57F17 classDef success fill:#C8E6C9,stroke:#2E7D32,stroke-width:2px,color:#1B5E20 classDef info fill:#BBDEFB,stroke:#1565C0,stroke-width:2px,color:#0D47A1 Assurance["AssuranceLevel"]:::centre Low["eIDAS Low"]:::warning Sub["eIDAS Substantial"]:::info High["eIDAS High"]:::success Verification["VerificationActivity"]:::cls Claim["Claim"]:::cls Framework["TrustFramework"]:::cls Assurance --> Low Assurance --> Sub Assurance --> High Verification -->|"assigns"| Assurance Claim -->|"inheritsFrom Verification"| Assurance Framework -->|"defines scheme"| Assurance

Source ODR

ODR-0009 — Claims, evidence, provenance §Q3

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