Day: October 11, 2018

The Annual Report of the Certification Officer, Sarah Bedwell, was laid before Parliament today 11 October 2018. The report describes the work of the Certification Officer over the year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 and provides detailed information on all trade unions and employers’ associations. The statistical information it contains is drawn from the annual returns received during the reporting period, which relate mainly to the year ending 31 December 2016.

Sarah Bedwell was appointed by the Secretary of State on 1 January 2018. The report was prepared together with Gerard Walker who held the position on an interim basis until 31 December 2017 and has since been appointed as Assistant Certification Officer.

TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP AND FINANCES

• Figures reported to the Certification Officer show total trade union membership of 6,875,231. This is an increase of 10,175 members or 0.15%. However, this included 147,330 retired members of UNISON that had not been included in previous totals. Without this figure the total figure would have been 6,727,901 or a decrease of 2% on the figures for the previous reporting period. This continues the decrease in union membership for the ninth successive year. The 13 largest unions account for over four fifths of the total trade union membership (5.82 million members or 84.7%) (Introduction, Chapter 4 and Appendix 4).
• The number of trade unions has also continued to decrease, notwithstanding the modest increase in 2014-15. There were 146 trade unions on the Certification Officer’s lists and schedules at the end of this reporting period, compared to 150 at the end of the previous period. Whilst three trade unions were added to the list, seven were removed. At the end of this reporting period there were 91 employers’ associations, the same number as at the end of the previous reporting period. (Introduction, Chapter 1).
• The total funds (net assets) of trade unions as reported in this period decreased 14% to £1,307 million. The 13 largest unions, that each have membership in excess of 100,000 members, had average net assets of £53 million (Chapter 4 and Appendix 4).
• The total sum contained in the political funds of the trade unions at the end of this period was £34 million. This is up £2.3 million, from £31.7 million the previous year. The largest political fund was that of Unite the Union, which was valued at around £14.5 million (Chapter 7 and Appendix 9).
• On 1 September 2017 the National Education Union was formed by amalgamation of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), two unions who at the end of the previous reporting period had a combined membership of around 565,583.

COMPLAINTS

Over the past reporting year 55 complaints were determined. This compares to 39 complaints in the previous reporting year. Of these, 52 complaints alleged that a union had breached its own rules. The other 3 related to alleged breaches of statute. A summary of these decisions can be found in Chapters 3, 4, 8 and 9 of this report. The issue that attracted the most interest was the decision made by Her Honour Judge Mary Stacey in her role as Assistant Certification Officer to hear the complaints of Mr Burgess and others against UNISON. The complaints related to the General Secretary election in 2015. There were multiple applicants and 16 complaints that required a preliminary hearing and three full days of evidence and submissions. Following this, the ACO made a single declaration that the union had breached its own rules relating to the election; she considered it inappropriate to make an enforcement order on the basis that it would be disproportionately punitive, in response to the breach found, to order the General Secretary election to be run again.

During the reporting year, a number of complaints arising out of the General Secretary election in 2017 were raised against Unite the Union by two applicants, Gerard Coyne and Richard Brooks. The Certification Officer appointed Jeffrey Burke QC to hear these complaints as Assistant Certification Officer. Following hearings between March and June 2018, the Assistant Certification Officer dismissed all 10 complaints. The decisions can be accessed on the breach of union rules section of our website.

THE TRADE UNION ACT 2016

The Trade Union Act 2016 received royal assent on 4 May 2016. To date three sections of the Act, that relate to the work of the Certification Officer, have been implemented:
Section 7 Information to Certification Officer about industrial action etc;
Section 11: Opting in by union members to contribute to political funds; and
Section 12: Union’s annual return to include details of political expenditure

All these provisions were commenced on 1 March 2017. Further details can be found in the Annual Report.

SECTION 7 – TRADE UNION ACT 2016 – INFORMATION TO CERTIFICATION OFFICER ABOUT INDUSTRIAL ACTION ETC

New duties to report on political expenditure and to provide information about industrial action apply to the reporting periods which begin after 1 March 2017. For the majority of trade unions this will mean that they will provide this information, for the first time, in their annual returns to me for the period ending 31 December 2018 which should be provided to me before 1 June 2019. In preparation for this my team have amended the template which trade unions use to report to this office so that unions can provide the additional information required

SECTION 11 – TRADE UNION ACT 2016 – OPTING IN BY UNION MEMBERS TO CONTRIBUTE TO POLITICAL FUNDS

The law relating to the way members of trade unions contribute to the political funds of their unions has been amended to favour a system of opting in rather that requiring members to opt out of making an otherwise automatic contribution. New members joining a union with a political fund on or after 1 March 2018 or all members of a union which establishes a new political fund will have to opt in if they wish to contribute to a political fund. To comply with the changes trade unions with political funds had to amend their rules relating to these funds and the amended rules must have been approved by me before 1 March 2018. All rule changes were approved for all trade unions wishing to retain a political fund during this period.

MEMBERSHIP AUDIT CERTIFICATE

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 introduced new provisions relating to the membership register of trade unions. The new provisions, incorporated into section 24 of the 1992 Act, impose a requirement on trade unions to submit to the Certification Officer annually a Membership Audit Certificate at the same as the union’s annual return. The new provisions also provide further powers to the Certification Officer to investigate concerns that the provisions of section 24 are not being or have not been compline with by a trade union. These powers came into force on 1 June 2016.

In this reporting year 153 membership audit certificates were due and all of these were received. No circumstances arose leading the Certification Officer to use his investigatory powers under section 24 of the 1992 Act.

Notes to editors:

1. The annual report of the Certification Officer for Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations was published and laid before Parliament on 11 October 2018. It is available on the Certification Office website: www.gov.uk/certificationofficer.
2. The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, as amended, sets out the Certification Officer’s statutory responsibilities. Section 258 requires the Certification Officer to make an annual report on his activities to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and to the Chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). The report must be laid before Parliament and published.
3. The Certification Officer is appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and resourced through Acas, but is independent of any direction from Ministers or Acas. Sarah Bedwell was appointed to the post on 1 January 2018.
4. The Certification Officer’s website contains every decision made by the Certification Officer since 1975. It contains all the annual returns from trade unions and employers associations since 2012, with links to The National Archives website for returns from between 2003 and 2012. It also contains guidance on various aspects of the Certification Officer’s functions, copies or links to Annual Reports going back to 2001-2002 and a list of trade unions and employers’ associations.
5. The Certification Officer invites you to subscribe to his email service to receive notice of any new items posted to the website. Visit the website: www.gov.uk/certificationofficer, to subscribe.
6. The Certification Officer has reported the following figures for trade union membership over the past 10 reporting years.

Year	TU Membership	Changes from previous year	%
17-18	6,875,231	+10,175	+0.15
16-17	6,865,056	-83,669	-1.2
15-16	6,948,725	-61,802	-0.88
14-15	7,010,527	-75,589	-1.1
13-14	7,086,116	-111,299	-1.5
12-13	7,197,415	-63,795	-0.9
11-12	7,261,210	-67,695	-0.9
10-11	7,328,905	-58,993	-0.8
09-10	7,387,898	-268,258	-3.5
08-09	7,656,156	+28,463	+0.4
07-08	7,627,693	+ 24,851	+ 0.3

For press enquiries please contact Gerard Walker, telephone: 0330 109 3605,
e-mail: gerard.walker@certoffice.org

The Sector Risk Profile 2018, published today (11 October 2018) by the Regulator of Social Housing, highlights health and safety issues, failures to meet stakeholder expectations and reliance on sales as significant potential risks for social housing providers to manage.

The report, now in its sixth edition, sets out the range of strategic and financial challenges facing the social housing sector. It is designed to help registered providers, board members and others to understand the operating environment and to think strategically about how their organisation can manage its risks.

Whilst the sector continues to have to manage a range of issues to ensure that it remains viable and well governed, the regulator has highlighted 3 key areas for boards to consider. Boards should:

• be clear about their health and safety responsibilities, both for stock that they own and stock that they manage, to ensure that tenants are safe in their homes and staff are safe at work
• consider their stakeholders expectations in their decision making, including tenants and residents; lenders and investors; and central and local government
• ensure that sales activity is underpinned by an understanding of local housing demand and the mitigations available if sales and staircasing do not match expectations

This year’s publication also emphasises risks to specialist providers, including the particular risks inherent in lease-based providers of supported housing, on which the regulator will be issuing a further report in due course.

Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive of RSH said:

The risks facing each organisation will depend upon the scale and nature of that business. It is important that boards understand the specific issues that they face, carry out adequate stress testing and plan meaningful mitigations. We will look for assurance from providers that they have robust stress tests, internal control systems and appropriate risk management. We will also continue to monitor the exposure that sales risks have on the sector as part of our quarterly review of providers’ overall financial strength.

The aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire has seen unprecedented scrutiny of the social housing sector, landlords’ relationship with their tenants, and public interest in the sector’s wider social role. In this context providers must show how they are delivering on their social purpose and objectives, and meeting their promises and commitments. Where things go wrong providers should be open and transparent and look to put the issue right as quickly as possible. Failure to do so could not only undermine stakeholder confidence in individual providers but also affect the reputation of the sector as a whole.

The regulator’s Sector Risk Profile 2018 is available on the RSH website.

Further information

1. The regulator’s annual Sector Risk Profiles are available on the RSH website.
2. The Regulator of Social Housing promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs. It does this by undertaking robust economic regulation focusing on governance, financial viability and value for money that maintains lender confidence and protects the taxpayer. It also sets consumer standards and may take action if these standards are breached and there is a significant risk of serious detriment to tenants or potential tenants. For more information visit the RSH website.
3. See our Media enquiries page for press office contact details. For general queries, please email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225.

Following a meeting in Delhi earlier this month, MHRA will send intelligence to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), enabling them to target regions suspected of sending unlicensed medicines into the UK.

This is another example of co-ordinated efforts to tackle international medicines crime. The DRI recently seized 350,000 tablets of potent medicines such as Diazepam, Tramadol and Zopiclone destined for UK, European and US markets. Rapid mutual intelligence-sharing will help to combat the illegal cross-border trade in medicines.

The UK and India have a longstanding relationship when it comes to collaborating around the issue of medicines. In 2015 both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), further increasing collaboration in the area of medicines and medical devices and improving public safety.

MHRA’s Head of Enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey:

Our active collaboration with Indian Government agencies sends a strong message to criminals; when we work with our global partners we are able to disrupt criminal activity through the identification, arrest and prosecution of offenders wherever they are.

We are working tirelessly to identify all those involved in bringing unlicensed medicines into the UK.

Our collaborative efforts with key partners like India will help protect the health of UK citizens.

Additional Director General, Vivek Chaturvedi, said:

Indian Customs is committed to detecting and preventing illegal cross border trade in medicines and psychotropic substances. DRI being the apex intelligence and investigative agency has successfully booked a number of cases, carried out seizures and arrested offenders in recent past.

DRI works closely with international law enforcement agencies and regulators and MHRA is an important partner in tackling the menace of trade in illegal medicines.

Such collaboration is mutually beneficial to both countries in protecting the health of their citizens and in prosecuting the criminals involved in such offences.

Ends

Background

1. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe.
2. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.
3. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is the apex intelligence and investigative agency for matters relating to smuggling and violation of the Customs Act, NDPS Act, and other allied Acts involving cross border offences. The Directorate is part of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Department of Revenue, Government of India.
4. The medicines seized were Zopiclone, Zolpidem, Lorazepam, Diazepam, Tramadol and Alprazolam.
5. MHRA will send intelligence to DRI under the existing bilateral provisions.