Colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions consulted the Home Office on the decision to strengthen arrangements for issuing national insurance numbers, and we welcomed that approach. In addition, IND officials have been fully engaged in detailed discussions on this matter with their counterparts in DWP on the practical arrangements.
Can the Minister tell the House how many national insurance numbers were issued to individuals who may be working here illegally, and how much tax the Treasury collected from them?
I have already commented on the omniscience, and the limits of it, of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary and myself. As the hon. Gentleman will know, that information is not available, but it is important that we continue to bear down on illegal working, which is why, in 2004, we tightened the number of documents to which employers must refer when they employ people. We will continue to introduce measures to increase penalties on employers who employ people illegally. It is unfortunate that the Opposition abstained from a decision on those measures. I was leafing through my back copies of—
Order. I suggest that the Minister drop the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) a note.