Governments overdue announcement on NI numbers farcical - Laws

10.00.36pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 5th Jun 2006

Commenting on today's written statement from the DWP about changes in the allocation of National Insurance numbers to ensure that those who do not have a right to work in this country can not 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.

"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."