Is it too much to ask for the government to understand their own policies?

Given the number of UK businesses who employ migrant workers, you would think it was important for, say, the Department for Trade and Industry to understand employment rules. How then, can we explain this:

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many work permits were applied for by his Department and its agencies in each of the last five years. [127712]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department of Trade and Industry and its agencies do not apply for work permits. However, it is part of our standard pre-employment checks at recruitment stage to ensure that staff applying to be employed within the Department and its agencies have a work permit, where appropriate, before they are employed. Information on how many staff may have work permits is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Shocked? No? Well, remind yourself of the Home Office explanation of work permits:

3. Who can apply for a work permit?

Applications for work permits can only be made by UK-based employers on behalf of the person they wish to employ. There is no provision within the current arrangements for individuals to apply on their own behalf.

Fitzpatrick clearly hasn’t got a clue what a work permit is. It’s a permit applied for by an employer to allow them to employ a foreign national. An employer doesn’t “ensure that staff have a work permit”, he employs someone with the right to work, or he applies for a work permit for them.

People who employ illegal workers can be fined thousands of pounds, and they can be banned from holding company directorships. But how can they be expected to understand the system if the DTI doesn’t?

PS I know this isn’t strictly speaking the Home Office’s fault, but maybe if the Immigration and Nationality Directorate was fit for purpose, they could explain the system to their Whitehall colleagues…