Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential for (a) job losses and (b) loss of union recognition as a result of the sale of Co-op Insurance to Markerstudy.

The details of mergers and takeovers are primarily a commercial matter for the parties concerned.

The Employment Relations Act 1999 introduced a statutory recognition procedure that gave independent trade unions the right to apply to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) to be recognised by an employer for collective bargaining over pay, hours and holidays in respect of a group of workers in a particular bargaining unit.

Where an employer decides not to recognise or to derecognise a trade union, the union can use the statutory recognition procedure. The CAC can award recognition where a clear majority of the bargaining unit want it, and this is established in most cases through a ballot of the workforce.