National Insurance: Greater London
Work and Pensions
Written answers and statements, 17 June 2009

Lyn Brown (Assistant Whip (funded by HM Treasury); West Ham, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many new national insurance numbers excluding those generated automatically at the age of 16 have been issued to residents of the London Borough of (a) Newham, (b) Tower Hamlets, (c) Waltham Forest, (d) Hackney, (e) Barking and Dagenham and (f) Greenwich in each of the last five years.

Jim Knight (Minister of State (the South West), Regional Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
The available information is in the following table.
The national insurance number statistics show the total number of NINOs allocated—not the number of migrants living in the UK. We know that many people come to work for a short period then return—the statistics do not distinguish between transient/short term working and longer-term workers.
| National insurance number registrations issued to adult overseas nationals entering the UK | ||||
| Thousand | ||||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Hackney | 5.47 | 7.65 | 7.46 | 8.53 |
| Newham | 10.45 | 14.87 | 15.67 | 20.51 |
| Tower Hamlets | 7.28 | 10.46 | 11.57 | 13.21 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 2.53 | 3.16 | 3.08 | 4.29 |
| Greenwich | 3.64 | 5.69 | 5.69 | 6.53 |
| Waltham Forest | 7.01 | 9.9 | 9.46 | 12.67 |
| UK total | 435.35 | 663.06 | 705.84 | 733.09 |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and displayed in thousands. Some additional disclosure control has been applied. 2. Registration date is derived from the date at which a national insurance number (NINO) is maintained on the National Insurance Recording System. 3. Totals do not include adult UK nationals issued with NINOs. 4. Geographical counts are based on the most recently recorded address of the NINO recipient. Source: 100 per cent. extract from National Insurance Recording System. | ||||
Improvements have been made to the allocation of migrants whose residential address is incomplete. Figures reflect the best estimate of an overseas national's locality at the time of registering for a NINO.
The latest year that full data are available is 2007-08. In the six months April to September 2008, 342,800 NINO registrations were issued to adult overseas nationals, broken down as follows:
| Registrations | |
| Hackney | 4,350 |
| Newham | 10,680 |
| Tower Hamlets | 6,470 |
| Barking and Dagenham | 2,350 |
| Greenwich | 3,160 |
| Waltham Forest | 6,340 |
