Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is (a) undertaking or (b) plans to undertake a review of the check-off union subscription provision.

As I indicated in my answer of 13 September 2013, Official Report, Column 884W, Ministers in this Department do not believe it is appropriate for public resources to be used to support the collection and administration of membership subscriptions and believe is an outdated and unnecessary 20^th century practice.

It is also unsatisfactory that some trade unions collect the political levy via check-off, but make no attempt to inform would-be members that the political levy is optional, or even mention the right to opt out on their membership forms. It is the view of Ministers that this is a misleading and dubious marketing practice through omission.

I can confirm that we are taking further steps to review such practices.