Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March to Question 233002 on Government Departments: Trade Unions, what assessment he has made of the effect of restrictions placed on trade unions during a dispute on compliance with freedom of association and freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Department supports the right of employees to join a trade union, and the right of the union to communicate with its members.

The Department’s policy is not to make facilities available to the trade union for the purpose of planning, promoting, or implementing a decision to take industrial action against the Department, which it does not believe is contrary to the requirements of the Human Rights Act 1998.