Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) how much money was paid to the Union Learning Fund last year, and in total since its inception; (2) which trade unions were provided with assistance from the fund last year; (3) how much was provided in each case; and (4) whether they have plans to end these payments or re-assess their efficacy.

The Union Learning Fund (ULF) is administered by Unionlearn (the TUC's learning organisation). In the 2015-16 financial year, approximately £11m of funding was allocated to support the ULF.

As set out in the reply of 8 December 2015 to the Right Honourable Lord’s previous Parliamentary Question (HL3882) on this matter, the ULF was established in 1998 and funding has been provided by a number of different Departments. Between 1998-99 and 2006-07, around £70m of funding was allocated to support the ULF. Since 2006, the ULF has been administered by Unionlearn and around £116m in total has been distributed to ULF projects in respect of the financial years 2007-08 to 2015-16.

The total amount of funding received by all trade unions from the ULF for the financial year 2015-16 is set out in the table below.

The Department is currently in the process of finalising the grant agreement for Unionlearn and the ULF projects for the financial year 2017-18.

ULF Funding 2015-16