Oral Answers to Questions

Matthew Offord Excerpts

Wednesday 11th December 2013 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to control the amount of trade union facility time in the civil service.

[Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to control the amount of trade unions facility time in the civil service.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

At the time of the last general election, there was no proper monitoring of trade union facility time in government. That has now changed, and paid time off for any trade union activities and full-time union officials now requires the specific consent of a senior Minister. We expect the cost to the taxpayer for paid time off for trade union duties to fall by 60% from the level we inherited.

[Dr Offord]

I am very reassured by the Minister’s response, but will he outline to the House how much money has been saved as a result of those reforms?

[Mr Maude]

So far, by reducing significantly the number of full-time union officials who are paid by the taxpayer as civil servants, we have saved more than £2.3 million just from that element of the reforms. Overall, we are on course to meet our benchmark of spending no more than 0.1% of the civil service pay bill on facility time.