Civil Service job application asks for NI number, is it safe to provide?

[Onetwothreefourgo]

I have always read that you shouldn’t give you national insurance number on a job application. The government job website specifically says never to include in. Yet the civil service job I’m applying for asks for it…

Really ? Why do they say not to when other forms ask you to include it?

I've never heard this as a concern. It's standard to ask for it.

This is what the gov website says…