Posted By Andrew W I would like to ask the opinion of the forum. More and more frequently our personnel are requested to divulge their National Insurance numbers on arrival at site. In one sense I can understand the need to confirm the identity of personnel due to the fact that, allegedly, people can buy a CSCS/CPCS card in the pub for a tenner these days. However a phone call to Cskills or a check using Phoenix online would soon confirm credibility. Bearing in mind that the government's advice is not to give this information out due to identity theft I wondered what others opinions were.

Posted By martinw Revenue and Customs advice: 'Keep your number safe and do not disclose it to anyone who does not need it.' In what way is the NI number needed to verify ID? As stated above there other ID systems which could be used that are not advised by government and HMRC to keep secret. If acces was refused due to a person following the above advice and not giving their NI number, would this constitute dodgy ground for the employer?

Posted By martinw I could only think that this could be part of Home Office instruction to ensure that the person has the correct permissions(Visa's etc) to allow them to work. If they were a direct employee of that employer's site, this check should already have been carried out prior to them attending their first day at work. Other than that, going a bit far unless others can think of anything else?

Posted By martinw Proof of permission to work could still be required for new recruits, which for a UK national could be a passport if the person did not have their birth certificate. But again that should have been done prior to offering the job, not on attendance at site, even if that was their first day. This still sounds a bit OTT though. Has there been a history of workers claiming to be other co-workers there or journalists trying to gain access?

Posted By martinw Might be worth checking to see if the destination sites are willing to accept them: if not, you will be spending money for no reason. If the destination sites have been told that they have to have this documentation prior to acceptance on to the site they will just be carrying it out. You could ring the Borders Agency employers helpline(who regulate the control of illegal working) 0845 010 6677 who will tell you whether in their view this request for information is suitable - it should be the employer doing these checks, not the controller of another's site: if they say it is not, you could approach the controllers of the sites and share this info. It does sound like these are exactly the documents required, singly or in combination, to prove that you are eligible to work in the UK. By allowing your guys to come onto their sites, even if they are working for you, they may just be trying to ensure that no illegal workers are working on their sites, whether working for them or others. They may have been told by other previous companies that their visiting workers have been correctly checked and found this not to be the case, so they are doing it themselves(and not trusting you by default).