Shadow Home Affairs Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin supports a register of foreign workers which Bermudians can consult to see if they are qualified for their jobs, according to the United Bermuda Party's official website.

But Ms Gordon, who said this week her party is opposed to such a plan, said yesterday she provided the information for the website four years ago in 1998 when she was an election candidate and she did not know it was still on the site.

She reiterated she was now opposed to such a register, which was proposed by Government backbencher Arthur Hodgson in the House of Assembly on Friday, and said it was up to the UBP to decide if it wanted to remove the information from the site.

On the www.ubp.bm website under candidates, Ms Gordon-Pamplin states one of her concerns is: "Establishing a register of foreign workers as part of the public domain, highlighting duration of contract, type of job, expiration date of tenure of incumbent, reasonable lead time parallel training of qualified Bermudians, monitoring to ensure that advertised positions are not 'tailor-made' for particular foreign applicants."

Ms Gordon-Pamplin told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "Until you called me today, I was totally unaware that this biographical information, which I provided in 1998, was part of the website.

"I don't apologise, because they were issues that were pressing for me, and whether these are now removed, that is a matter for the party to decide, and for the party to decide whether everything on the website is what the group believes.

"It has not been discussed in the (UBP parliamentary) caucus, so it is premature to say whether it should be removed. I called for it at the time and I didn't hide it from anyone.

"I would characterise it now as a simplistic resolution to a very complex problem. Having more information now, there may be some more considerations that we have to go into our policy on what we do about.

"You will notice that at no time did I suggest that there be individual names, but rather things like duration of contract and type of job.

"I am still very concerned that Bermudians have the opportunity to get jobs that they are qualified to do, and for there to be a way of knowing where the jobs are and how they get them."

When asked what the UBP would propose in place of a register of foreign workers to alert Bermudians to the jobs they are holding, she said: "(Party) consensus will have to rule."

In yesterday's Royal Gazette she said that although the UBP parliamentary caucus had not discussed the issue, the party would oppose it because naming individual foreign workers on the register could result in them being "persecuted".

Mr. Hodgson said on Friday that setting up a register would remove some of the anecdotal grudges Bermudians held against foreigners and result in them not unfairly venting their frustrations on ex-patriot workers.