Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

1. When HM Revenue and Customs plans to publish data on the number of active national insurance numbers used by people from other EU countries.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

The Government are committed to providing data on active national insurance numbers used by people from other EU countries. HMRC is currently compiling that information and is working closely with the Office for National Statistics, which is reconciling the four main sources of international migration data. The data on active national insurance numbers will be published as part of, or alongside, the ONS’s publication. It is up to that independent statistics authority to decide when it is ready to make public the information.

[Henry Smith]

I have been asking HMRC for the figures since January. The British people have a right to know such facts, particularly in the context of the UK’s EU referendum debate. Will we know before 23 June how many foreign nationals from other EU countries have national insurance numbers?

[Mr Gauke]

It does take some time for HMRC to combine and match multiple datasets and hundreds of millions of lines of its own and the Department for Work and Pensions’ data. The intention is to publish the information alongside the ONS analysis. I note that according to its website the ONS plans to publish in May a note on migration incorporating the latest available migration data, and helping to explain further why the two datasets show different trends.