It had to exist to be read once at some unknown point in the past, but the government already knows it exists because they issued it. Anything more (such as "it is present now") is speculation.
Cloning static data from NFC readers is something a physical penetration testing team does. Stand near employee in coffee shop, their ID badge says "Hi I'm employee badge #123456789 for site #98765" and you clone that, then walk in later, "Hi I'm employee badge #123456789 for site #98765" says your fake badge with your picture on it. Is it better than nothing? Yes. Would I like my government to aim a bit higher than "Enough know-how to bluff your way into a mid-size corp headquarters building" ? Yes please.
> Actually maybe the don't.
The UK government will issue you one document based on records from another document so long as it's timely. For example when my photo driving license expires, I just renew it with the photo from my new passport. Some people do the opposite way around. You can't renew everything forever because your photo expires and you need to provide a new one that resembles the previous one except now you're older. But the fact they can do this means they do have those records.
Even the resemblance checking presumably means somewhere a minimum wage employee is being shown pairs of images, "Young white guy with freckles and a beard" + "Older white guy, same freckles, no beard" => OK pass unless somebody has drunk way too much ML kool aid, but that can only work if they have the records.