Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the average cost, as a percentage of the total paybill, of trade union facility time in the (a) public sector and (b) private sector in the latest period for which data is available.

Under the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017, relevant public sector authorities are required to publish certain information annually on facility time usage in their organisation.

The most recently available data, for 2022/23, is published on gov.uk. It provides data on the total cost of facility time for public sector organisations, including as a percentage of total pay.

The Cabinet Office does not hold information on the cost of facility time within the private sector. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has made impact assessments relating to the Employment Rights Bill, which have been published on .gov.uk