Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil servants of his Department are members of trades unions; how many working hours of facility time are taken by such civil servants; and what estimate he has made of the cost of that facility time to his Department.

It is no longer possible for the department to verify the numbers of staff that are currently trade union members; this information can now only be obtained directly from the trade unions.

The Cabinet Office publishes data relating to Civil Service facility time on a quarterly basis. The latest data is Quarter 4, 2014 at and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-union-facility-time