HC Deb 22 May 1996 vol 278 cc249-50W
Mrs. Roche

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the documents which an employer will have to recognise, other than national insurance documents, under clause 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Bill. [29951]

Miss Widdecombe

[holding answer 21 May 1996]: In cases where no documented national insurance number was available it is currently envisaged that any one of the following documents would provide an employer with a defence: birth certificates issued in the United Kingdom; passports describing the holder as a British citizen or as having the right of abode in the United Kingdom; certificates of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen; passports issued by a state which is a party to the European Economic Area agreement; identity cards issued by a state which is a party to the EEA agreement and which describes the holder as a national of a state which is party to that agreement; passports or other travel documents endorsed to show that the holder has indefinite leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom; passports or other documents endorsed to show that the holder has current leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom and is not precluded from taking the employment in question; and certain letters issued by the Home Office or Department for Education and Employment indicating that the person named in the letter has permission to take any or specified employment.

Appropriate guidance about these documents will be made available to employers in due course. A telephone helpline facility will also be made available.