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16 Oct 2002 : Column 901W—continued
National Insurance Numbers
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the rules are regarding obtaining work without the possession of a national insurance number. [72126]
Malcolm Wicks: I have been asked to reply. Employers can offer employment to a person who has not yet registered for National Insurance purposes. A
16 Oct 2002 : Column 902W
person without a National Insurance number is not precluded from starting work and then obtaining a National Insurance number later.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employers were prosecuted for employing people without national insurance numbers in (a) 1998, (b) 1999, (c) 2000 and (d) 2001; and what penalties were imposed. [72125]
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Malcolm Wicks: I have been asked to reply. There is no requirement in law to have a National Insurance number before starting work. Therefore no employers have been prosecuted for employing people without National Insurance numbers.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many National Insurance number applicants have waited four months or more for an interview in each of the last 24 months; and what has been the average time between a person's original application for a number and a number being issued in each year since 1992. [74708]
Malcolm Wicks: I have been asked to reply. The information is not available in the format requested.
Earlier this year, applicants were experiencing delays in some parts of the country for up to 6 months. That figure has reduced considerably, and indications are that no one currently has to wait more than 4 weeks for an initial National Insurance number allocation interview.
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SOLICITOR-GENERAL
Recruitment
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Solicitor General how many net additional staff her Department has recruited in each month since June 2001 at (a) executive officer level and (b) administrative level. [52427]
The Solicitor-General [holding answer 29 April 2002]: The figures for the Departments for which the Attorney General is responsible are as follows:
Serious Fraud Office
Record keeping by the SFO does not allow the breakdown of the creation of new posts on a month by month basis without incurring disproportionate costs. However, during the year 1 April 2001 to 1 April 2002, the SFO created 24 additional executive officer posts and 18 additional administrative officer posts.
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
In the period June 2001 to April 2002, HMCPSI created three additional posts, two at executive officer level and one at administrative officer level.
Treasury Solicitor's Department
In relation to the Treasury Solicitor's Department (including Legal Secretariat to the Law officers), no additional posts were created in the period June 2001 to Apri 2002.
Crown Prosecution Service
The number of net additional staff recruited since June 2001 by the Crown Prosecution Service is set out in the attached table. The figures are Full Time equivalent figures, reflecting the fact that some posts are part-time.
| Casual | |||||||||||||
| Administrative | 41.89 | 50.57 | -26.19 | -53.25 | -0.84 | 6.70 | -2.93 | 4.89 | 1.48 | 3.73 | 26.04 | ||
| Executive | -1.00 | -1.00 | 0.00 | -1.59 | 0.00 | -1.00 | 0.00 | 0.67 | -0.61 | 1.00 | -3.54 | ||
| Total change +/- | 40.89 | 49.57 | -26.19 | -54.85 | -0.84 | 5.70 | -2.93 | 5.56 | 0.87 | 4.73 | 22.50 | ||
| Permanent | |||||||||||||
| Administrative | 59.85 | 78.97 | 45.16 | 25.10 | 38.88 | 27.26 | 10.03 | 24.43 | 16.77 | -11.78 | 314.67 | ||
| Executive | 4.00 | 1.39 | 6.14 | 10.55 | 25.99 | 15.66 | -.53 | 0.92 | -2.06 | -15.60 | 45.47 | ||
| Total change +/- | 63.85 | 80.37 | 51.30 | 35.66 | 64.88 | 42.92 | 8.50 | 25.35 | 14.71 | -27.38 | 360.14 | ||