Industrial Action: E-balloting

Margot James Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Margot James)]

Section 4 of the Trade Union Act 2016 makes provision for the Secretary of State to commission an independent review concerning electronic balloting for the purposes of ballots held under section 226 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

It was announced that Sir Ken Knight would be undertaking the independent review on 3 November 2016.

The Government were particularly keen to understand the electronic and physical security of electronic balloting methods, including the risks of interception, impersonation, hacking, fraud and, misleading or irregular practices, as well as whether any system could safeguard against the risk of intimidation of union members and protect anonymity of ballot responses. During the review Sir Ken Knight issued a call for evidence and conducted a number of roundtables with key stakeholders to hear their views.

The review is published today and I would like to place on record my thanks to Sir Ken for his work. Under the terms of the Trade Union Act 2016, the Secretary of State is now required to consider the review and, in preparing his response, must consult relevant organisations, including professionals from expert associations to seek their advice and recommendations. Accordingly, we will now consider Sir Ken’s review and respond in due course.

Copies of the review will be laid before both Houses.

[HCWS365]