Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Priti Patel

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

As I say, it is a matter for Departments to decide for themselves. A number of trade unions take the view that it is much better to have a direct relationship with their members than to have it intermediated through the employer—it is a rather more modern way to run things.

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend think that it is fair on hard-working British taxpayers that their money is used to subsidise the administration of trade unions rather than going to front-line services?

[Mr Maude]

My hon. Friend has been a doughty campaigner for the use of facility time to be much better regulated. We inherited from Labour a position in which very large amounts of public money were being spent on subsidising 250 full-time officials in the civil service alone, let alone in the wider public sector. I am happy to tell her that we have got that under control.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Priti Patel

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

I have had a number of discussions about that with the BIS Minister who has responsibility for post offices, and we are doing what we can to encourage the post office network to be, as much as it can, a front office for a number of Government services. We think that is a valuable function.

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

T4. The Minister will be aware that Unison has instructed its members to secure as much paid or facility time as possible for union activity, including campaigning. Will he confirm that not a penny of taxpayers’ money will go to subsidise such trade union activity?

[Mr Maude]

There is a distinction between trade union duties, which are to do with genuine representation of employee rights, and trade union activities, which are not. There is no legal obligation to provide paid time off for trade union activities, which is why we are consulting on the reduction or elimination of that.

Industrial Action

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Priti Patel

Wednesday 30th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

I feel confident that if the hon. Gentleman was on strike today, we would definitely miss him. I commend him, as a member of a trade union, for having crossed the picket line today to come to work. The issue he raises is where the extra contribution is going. He fails to understand that these schemes, for the most part, are not funded schemes. What is not paid by staff towards the cost of their pensions is picked up by the general taxpayer. And I say again—I assume this is the basis on which the shadow Chancellor said this morning that further reform of public sector pensions is needed—that whatever is not paid by staff is picked up the taxpayer, and that all the extra cost in the past 10 years, which has risen by a third—an extra £10 billion a year—has fallen on the general taxpayer. That is why we need a fairer balance.

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

With only a third of union members voting for today’s strike action, does my right hon. Friend believe that today’s action is justified?

[Mr Maude]

I do not think that on any basis today’s action is justified. First of all, there are negotiations going on almost on a daily basis, as I said. Secondly, certainly in the biggest trade unions, a very low proportion of the members who were balloted voted. In Unison, for example, only a little over a quarter of the members balloted voted. In all the large unions, it was somewhere between a quarter and a third. That does not amount to very much of a mandate for strike action. I think it was irresponsible and I wish it had not happened.

Public Bodies Reform

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Priti Patel

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The short point is that citizens advice bureaux carry a high degree of trust with citizens. They exist locally and are well supported, and they manage to mobilise very large amounts of voluntary activity. We must get away from the slightly outdated idea that to show that we care about something very much, we must set up a quango to express it.

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

Will the Minister join me in welcoming the complete abolition of the Union Modernisation Fund Supervisory Board, which wasted hard-earned taxpayers’ money holding secret meetings in expensive hotels? It effectively handed taxpayers’ money to the trade unions. Will he give an assurance that he will take action to prevent such abuses of taxpayers’ money from happening in again?

[Mr Maude]

We have not taken a decision on the future of the Union Modernisation Fund itself, but my hon. Friend raises genuine concerns about the way in which the supervisory body operated. In the previous Parliament, I asked a number of questions about the publication of its minutes, but somewhat to my surprise I discovered that no such minutes were kept. That is the epitome of unaccountability and lack of transparency, which is exactly what I am seeking to address.