The consequences of identity theft in many EU countries are dramatically less severe than in the US, though.

This is mostly due to not using a short, immutable identifier (like the US SSN) effectively as a bearer token, as far as I can tell.

Even getting a copy (or even the original!) of somebody's passport or driver's license is not enough to open a bank account or a credit card in many EU countries; in Germany, you need to actually appear in front of a bank employee (or subcontractor), personally or in a video chat, verify your identity, and confirm your intention to open a new account.

The downsides to identity fraud come from letting the parties that are defrauded push the problem onto an uninvolved third party.

It should be easy to tell a bank to screw off when they issue a fraudulent account, it isn't the named parties fault that the bank wasn't diligent.

I don't see their methodology but this sounds absurd. Half of UK's citizens have experienced identity fraud? Highly suspicious numbers.