The news comes as Peter Hain, the cabinet minister in charge of the department, faces an inquiry into GB pound 103,000 of undisclosed donations to his deputy leadership campaign.
The Security Industry Authority (SIA) confirmed that each of the 6,653 illegal workers issued with licences had to provide national insurance numbers as part of its application process.
A spokesperson for the regulator told Channel 4 news, “It is a mandatory requirement on the application form that you provide details of your national insurance number. Anyone who doesn’t provide that has their application automatically rejected.
“All 6,653 individuals had a national insurance number that looked to us to be valid.”
The SIA collects the national insurance numbers to ensure the Criminal Records Bureau can conduct background checks on applicants.
Between January 2004 and April 2007, nearly 900,000 non-EU citizens were given national insurance numbers, despite only 270,000 work permits being issued in the same period.
Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said, “It looks pretty clear that Peter Hain is no more in control of his department than he was of his deputy leadership campaign finances.
“He’s been trying to avoid answering questions about this for two months – and now we know why.”
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