Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps their Department takes to comply with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and if they will make a statement.

The Home Office recognises the following four trade unions for collective bargaining purposes in respect of specific grades of staff:

• FDA (formerly the First Division Association)
• ISU (formerly the Immigration Service Union)
• Prospect
• Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union

As part of the regular engagement process the Home Office proactively provides these unions with human resources information to support constructive engagement.

In terms of compliance with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, the Home Office will constructively consider all requests from its trade unions for information to support collective bargaining. Additionally, the Department has a framework in place for annual pay negotiations with the trade unions which lists standard items of data that will be provided to the unions annually to facilitate the negotiations. The framework also sets out that the Department will consider requests for additional information and aim to respond positively where possible.