My Lords, this group of amendments concerns transparency and reporting requirements. I hope the Minister will consider that I do not intend these remarks to be provocative but I
want to better understand what the Government are trying to achieve by these reporting provisions. What does the Minister think is broken? She seemed to suggest that somehow there is hidden spending that members do not know about. The one thing that I am absolutely certain about is that members of trade unions know full well that their unions tend to support the Labour Party. If their unions did not tell them that, the media and the Conservative Party would, and, indeed, have been very good at doing so, ensuring that people are well aware of that. I have heard many people say that only 50% or 60% of union members vote Labour, and ask about the 40% or 50% who do not do so. Believe it or not, lots of trade union members may not vote Labour on occasion but are quite happy to support their unions’ campaigns and the political levy. In fact, I happen to know somebody who was a member of the Conservative Party, became a Conservative MP and continued to pay the political levy because he thought that it was right to do so given the role that trade unions play in civil society.
The Minister has already referred to AR21s—the annual returns that unions make—and the information in them. I used to frequent the Certification Officer’s website at regular intervals. I admit that I have not done that so much recently but this morning I went through it and through the AR21s. I also looked at the Certification Officer’s annual report. There is a variation in terms of what is contained in the AR21s. Certainly, there is not necessarily the breakdown that you would expect, but you can then go to the annual reports and accounts, which are fully audited.
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I come back to the basic principle: what governs the relationship between a member and their union is its constitution; its rulebook. It is open to a member to challenge every element of activity through the regulator, the Certification Officer. Breaches of rules are dealt with through that. There is a suggestion here that something is not quite right; something is broken. How many complaints have we had? Where has the concern come from? I do not accept, for one moment, that people do not know that their unions are political. Apart from anything else, as we have heard previously in Committee, every 10 years a union is required to have a ballot on whether it has a political fund or not. It is disappointing that, despite all the publicity and campaigning efforts, the turnout for these ballots is low. Maybe the problem we need to address is how to encourage participation. The problem with the Bill is that, in every element, it does not address the issue of participation by saying that we need to do more to mobilise people. The Government’s response is to say that participation is a problem and we should have restraint and impose thresholds. This does not show understanding of the issues we are focused on.
The requirements in these clauses impose additional reporting burdens on unions that are not imposed on any other organisation. What would a ceiling of £2,000 mean in these terms? I will come on to the political party funding later, but it would mean hotel accommodation for delegations, training events, equipment, regional forums and booking stands at conferences. There could be a huge amount of specific detail which will not add
to the member’s ability to make an informed choice about whether they participate in the political fund or not: it is purely more regulation. I thought that this Government—and the Minister in particular—were concerned to reduce regulation, but when it comes to the trade union movement that is not the case: it has all got to be added on to.
There is one thing which the Minister will not mention in this debate. There is a reporting requirement: there are AR21s and the detailed, audited annual reports and accounts, all democratically processed through the union’s constitution. It is all there, but if it does not give information in a way that the Minister suggests, a member is, of course, entitled, under Section 30 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, to inspect the relevant accounting record. There is no problem with the member being able to see anything. The trade union gives far more rights to a member than any other organisation. If that right is refused, the union can be referred to the Certification Officer. One can see, on the officer’s website, every single such complaint, whether acceded to or not. The Certification Officer, not requiring fines or penalties, can order the union to ensure that the accounting records are supplied to the member. Where is the transparency issue? I suspect it has more to do with some poor person in the Conservative Central Office research department who is told every election time, “Tell me how much Unite has given to the Labour Party—I want to know!”. I can hear the voices and I can hear that poor researcher thinking, “Where do I go? How can I make it easier?”. I suspect that is why this is in the Conservative manifesto. It has nothing to do with the rights of members, regrettably, or with increasing transparency. It has everything to do with burdening unions with more regulations and requirements.
I hope the noble Baroness will understand that the transparency issues in relation to trade unions are not simply about what the law can do. We should be defending the unions’ constitutions and rulebooks and stop interference from Governments. I beg to move.