Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2025, to Question 88690, on Unite: Conference Centres and Hotels, what steps (a) BDO, (b) the inspector and (c) the Certification Officer taken to ensure that documents held by Unite, Unite members and its contractors or sub-contractors, are not lost or destroyed, and whether any formal notices have been served to this effect.

As previously publicly notified, an inspector, duly appointed by the Certification Officer, is carrying out the inspection under statutory powers. Accordingly, the Certification Officer is allowing that process to proceed. No formal notices have been served by the Certification Officer.

Section 33(7) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 makes it an offence for any official or agent of a trade union to destroy, falsify or make false entries in documents relating to the union’s financial affairs.

BDO is a private entity, and the government cannot comment on its actions.