Trade Union Bill

My Lords, I support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours—which is not somethi...

I said earlier that I would not make many interventions but I was interrupted when I was speaking...

A composite.

It is a composite. Right. Can I just make a couple of small points on this issue?

My Lords, perhaps I can just interrupt—I beg the forgiveness of the House. We are dealing with ma...

So we are having a debate on the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours? That is fi...

I have never done this before: intervening on a speech just after I have spoken. I am being absol...

I accept the point that the noble Lord makes, but the key issue is that if we are looking for a f...

My Lords, I say at the outset that we have got ourselves into a bit of a pickle over procedure; I...

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, for tabling this amendment and ...

My Lords, when I was called, I was in a little bit of a pickle over procedure because I was quite...

Moved by

Baroness Smith of Basildon

66: Clause 10, page 7, line 11, leave out “three ...

My Lords,—

My Lords—

I have never yet been intervened on before I have said one sentence, but I will happily give way....

I thank the noble Baroness for giving way. I wonder if she could help me with something which is ...

I have to say to the noble Lord that that is one of the silliest interventions that I have ever h...

My Lords, the House has great respect for the noble Baroness the Leader of the Opposition and for...

My Lords, this transitional period of three months, during which the trade union member is treate...

My Lords—

My Lords—

My Lords, perhaps I may jump in. The procedure is a little muddled but I think that it makes sens...

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Monks, for responding to my invitation, whic...

The noble Lord, Lord King, who is a very honourable man, has taken us through the history accurat...

This is a very serious issue—the issue of whether people are being conned, whether a lot of union...

I would not normally intervene on the noble Lord, but I have listened with great care and I am gr...

The noble Baroness raises a serious point. The real difficulty is that others will stand up and s...

This is the kernel of the issue: what is the evidence? I cannot vouch that over 32 years goodness...

I think that one of the difficulties with what the noble Lord, Lord Monks, said is that there are...

My Lords, as my noble friend said, I am a member of the Select Committee looking at Clauses 11 an...

My Lords, it is 36 years since I last agreed with the noble Lord, Lord Wrigglesworth, and at that...

The Conservative Party.

Sorry, the Conservative Party—it is probably true of the Labour Party as well if you look at it.<...

I say to the noble Lord that old habits die hard.

There is no need for there to be a huge gap between us. One of the points that I put forward when...

My Lords, as one who has never been a member of the Labour Party, I entirely agree with the force...

My Lords, I shall intervene briefly, given the lateness of the hour. First, I apologise to the Co...

My Lords, I referred earlier to my interests in the register. I further declare that I am a donor...

I do not know whether I am helping or not, but the unions do not necessarily spend all their poli...

Indeed, as I have said. We do not know where a very large proportion of it—46%—goes; it goes on p...

The trade union movement in this country is one of the most highly regulated in the world. It is ...

Or supporting a Conservative Member of Parliament.

I thank you. I did actually read the Certification Officer’s report this afternoon. It details ex...

The noble Lord read the annual report of the Certification Officer, but if you go on the Certific...

Thank you. I have read the annual reports of a number of the unions and, as I say, 54%—according ...

The money that a union collects is foremost a union’s money to spend for the benefit of its membe...

With great respect, private companies do have shareholders and have to produce annual accounts. T...

The noble Lord says that we are not talking about the Conservative Party, only about the Labour P...

With respect, we are discussing the Trade Union Bill and the opt-in or opt-out of the Trade Union...

I do apologise to the noble Lord—I rarely intervene on these matters, but he has moved me to do s...

They have been raised and the point has been made that there have been no complaints. I am trying...

My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, has said, the impact on party funding of Clauses 10 ...

Was that the first time that the Minister saw those papers?

It was.

So the Bill was prepared without any knowledge of an agreement made by the previous Conservative ...

The first time that I saw the papers in relation to 1984, shown to me by my noble friend Lord Kin...

I am grateful to the Minister for that extraordinarily candid answer. Will she check with her off...

The agreement of course dates back a fair number of years. The letter from the then Government, a...

Well—

In time for Committee. The impact assessment sets out scenarios about how the move to opt in migh...

I asked about penalties if organisations used their best endeavours to achieve what the Governmen...

The answer, which I hope she will welcome, is that a union will not be able to deduct a payment t...

Is the Minister saying that she is creating a criminal offence, but if someone fails to comply wi...

My understanding is that it is not a criminal offence. It is an offence. This quite often happens...

I suspect that one reason the noble Lord, Lord King, did the deal with the TUC was that he knew t...

I thank the noble Lord for mentioning that because I am going to talk about the 10 years in a min...

I am sorry to make another intervention. In comparison with these examples, the amount of a union...

It is a political decision. That is the whole point.

It is an important political decision, as my noble friend said. In other parts of the Bill we hav...

At present, as I understand it, union members contribute to the political fund of a union unless ...

I agree with my noble friend. These are important decisions, and there are differences between us...

I hope that the Minister is going to come to this point. Given that she is one of the pioneers of...

As is so often the case, the noble Lord makes a good point. Perhaps he will give me a minute. I w...

We have been talking about whether members should get information through the website. Has any an...

The noble Lord makes an interesting point. I have said that we are in favour of looking at electr...

I asked this question and it is the subject of one of my amendments. It would help if the Ministe...

My Lords, my mind is not closed to logistic arrangements that would make these provisions workabl...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response and her willingness to reflect on some of these i...

My Lords, the noble Baroness has attacked my noble friend the Minister for the Government apparen...

There is a real point in that. I think that there should be longer memories in your Lordships’ Ho...

That was someone else.

I apologise to the noble Lord; he would never make such a silly comment. Quite extraordinarily, t...