National Insurance Numbers and Illegal Immigrants

Part of Opposition Day — [6th allotted day] – in the House of Commons at 1:08 pm on 16 January 2008.

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Photo of Peter Hain Peter Hain The Secretary of State for Wales, The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 1:08, 16 January 2008

I need to answer this point, and then I will come back to the hon. Gentleman.

Let me remind the House what position the Opposition took when the Security Industry Authority was established. Their spokesman said:

"The Opposition's approach to the Bill is that it should not place unnecessary, overly complex, bureaucratic or burdensome regulations on the legitimate sector of the industry...A large company can afford to employ people in compliance and administrative departments to ensure that regulations are satisfied. However, for people legitimately trying to run a small company...extra bureaucratic regulation is a huge problem."—[ Hansard, 28 March 2001; Vol. 365, c. 980.]

The Conservatives will certainly get the gangmasters' vote with that attitude. Here they are, complaining about a lack of due attention and proper regulation, but when we were putting the necessary legislative changes in place, they spoke out against the tight controls that we introduced.