Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken by her Department was from an application being received to issuing National Insurance numbers to those people arriving from Hong Kong with British national overseas status.

Demand for the National Insurance Number (NINo) service is currently high with the average time taken to process applications around 13 weeks. This is for all employment inspired applications including people arriving from Hong Kong with British National Overseas status.

The Department is currently recruiting and training additional staff to reduce these waiting times.

The Department expedites NINo applications for those who require one in order to receive Social Security Benefits.