Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has plans to modernise the Certification Officer to help ensure that legal advice obtained by trade unions is communicated to their members.

The Certification Officer is the regulator of trade unions and employer associations. The Government modernised the role of the Certification Officer recently by implementing in April last year the reforms under the Trade Union Act. This has given the Certification Officer greater investigatory powers, the power to impose financial penalties and the ability to raise a levy on trade unions and employer associations. The Government has no further plans to reform the role of the Certification Officer at this time.