Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to facilitate engagement with trade unions representing police, fire and border security staff.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office places significant importance on building industrial relations with representative workforce organisations for police, fire and border security. I can advise specifically of the following:
Police
Police staff are employed by each force and report into their respective Chief Constables. The Home Office meets with unions that represent police staff on a regular basis to understand the issues of importance to their members.
Police officers are represented by their police staff associations and not trade unions, and the Home Office meets with these organisations on a regular basis.
Fire and Rescue Services
The Home Office is proactively engaging with unions in relation to fire and rescue related policy and has conducted ministerial and official level engagement with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and other representative organisations. We have also created a Ministerial Advisory Group, with representation from senior leaders across the sector, including the FBU.
Border Security Staff
Border security staff are employed by the Home Office. The department has long standing trade union recognition and engagement arrangements, which seek to ensure unions representing border security staff are appropriately engaged on matters impacting their members.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will meet with representatives of trade unions to discuss the potential impact of workplace visa rules on staff in her Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Whilst the impact of changes to the Skilled Worker Salary threshold introduced in April 2024 are affecting a very small proportion of staff within the Department, visa expiry and potential options for obtaining a future work visa are specific to individuals’ circumstances and the Home Office legislation which applies at the time that their current visa expires.
As current employee’s Visa expiry dates span several years and not all will be impacted by the changes to the skilled worker salary thresholds, the DWP Visa Sponsorship Team meet with Trade Unions weekly to ensure impacted members are supported.
Written Evidence Jan. 21 2025
Inquiry: Make Work Pay: Employment Rights BillFound: Meaningful consultation with trade unions is minimal.
Feb. 26 2025
Source Page: Retail Crime Forum: minutesFound: From: Home Office Published 26 February 2025 Get emails about this page Documents
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) retailers and (b) trade unions on the risk of misidentifications by private facial recognition systems.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is not responsible for facial recognition systems procured and operated by independent retailers.
In terms of police use of facial recognition systems, the Home Office supports forces in developing systems, guidance and training to minimise the possibility of misidentification and the consequences of it. Additionally, there are measures in place to mitigate against facial recognition misidentifications by the police. Facial recognition algorithms provided by or procured with Home Office funding for police use are required to be independently tested for equitability frt-equitability-study_mar2023.pdf.
The government is taking the time to make sure that police use of facial recognition operates on a firm footing, including keeping the legal framework under review. To that end, I am listening carefully to stakeholders and partners and have been holding a series of roundtables with policing, civil society groups, regulators and others.
It is important to note that any matches made through facial recognition technologies will always be assessed by a police officer and investigated before an arrest is made; no arrest would ever be made based solely on a facial match made by a computer.
Written Evidence Feb. 06 2025
Inquiry: Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energyFound: GMB has long stated that we believe hydrogen as a priority for home heating with heat pump conversions
Written Evidence Feb. 06 2025
Inquiry: Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energyFound: We bring together more than 5.5 million working people who make up our 48 member unions.
Mentions:
1: Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con - Life peer) It is because this Government are run by the trade unions. - Speech Link
2: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab - Life peer) My Lords, I think that many general secretaries of trade unions would wish that to be the case. - Speech Link
May. 23 2011
Source Page: NEWPORT PASSPORT OFFICE: Summary of the responses from the collective consultation and the Government’s decisions on the future of passport services at Newport. 12 p.Found: consultation with staff and trade unions.
Written Evidence Jan. 21 2025
Inquiry: Make Work Pay: Employment Rights BillFound: Trade unions are an obvious vehicle for delivering worker voice in this way.