Attorney General: Trade Unions
(asked on 28th October 2015) - View Source
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many civil servants in the Law Officers' Departments are members of trades unions; how much working hours facility time is claimed by each such civil servant; and what the cost of that facility time is to the Law Officers' Departments.
The Law Officers Departments do not hold complete records of the number of staff who are enrolled in a trade union as there is no obligation placed on a trade union to disclose this information to employers.
Records are however maintained on the amount of facility time claimed during the financial year 2014/15 and the cost involved, as detailed below.
Law Officers’ Departments – Trade Union facility time and costs in 2014-15 | ||
Facility time (hours) 2 | Cost | |
Government Legal Department1 | 2,206.2 | £46,302 |
Serious Fraud Office | 129.6 | £4,069 |
Crown Prosecution Service | 14,267 | £351,929 |
1 The GLD data also covers the Attorney General’s Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.
2 Only nominated trade union representatives are granted facility time.
The Cabinet Office publishes data relating to Civil Service facility time on a quarterly basis. The latest data is Quarter 4, 2014 at and is available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-union-facility-time .