Government announcement on NI numbers farcical

9.03.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 6th Jun 2006

Liberal Democrats Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary - David Laws MP

Commenting on yesterday's written statement from the Department of Work & Pensions about changes in the allocation of National Insurance numbers (to ensure that those who do not have a right to work in this country cannot obtain a number), Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, David Laws MP said "It is outrageous that the DWP has routinely been issuing National Insurance numbers to people who are not entitled to be in Britain or have false papers. What is astonishing is that that it has taken the Government so long to introduce this change."

David went on to say "The Government's pretence that this change is the result of a systematic review of existing legislation is farcical, when it is clear that it took a national newspaper's actions to illicit any action on this matter."

"We need to establish which Ministers and officials were aware of the abuses of the system and why the DWP for so many years failed to act."