Consultation outcome

Trade Union Act 2016: consultation on the Certification Officer’s enforcement powers

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Detail of outcome

The government will next lay draft regulations before Parliament to enable the implementation of the penalties’ regime for the Certification Officer.

Subject to Parliamentary approval, the intention is for the regulations and the implementation of the regime to come into force in April 2022.

Detail of feedback received

We received 15 responses from the Trades Union Congress, and large and medium sized unions.

No small unions, businesses, employers’ associations, other organisations, or individuals responded to the consultation.


Original consultation

Summary

We're seeking views on proposals for the implementation of the financial penalties regime.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

This consultation seeks your views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of Section 19 of the Trade Union Act. This gives the Certification Officer the power to impose financial penalties on unions and employer associations for non-compliance with statutory requirements.

We are consulting on the detail of how the proposed financial penalties regime will operate. Specifically, we are seeking views on whether:

  • the proposed approach to set the level of financial penalty by type of obligation breached is appropriate
  • the maximum levels by type of obligation breached are appropriate
  • the proposal to reduce the penalty maxima by 50% for unions and employer associations whose membership size is less than 100,000 is appropriate

We welcome views from trade unions, employer associations and other interested organisations and individuals.

Documents

Trade Union Act 2016: consultation on the Certification Officer’s enforcement powers

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DRAFT - The Trade Union (Financial Penalties) Regulations

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Updates to this page

Published 9 April 2017
Last updated 8 June 2021 + show all updates
  1. Government response published.

  2. First published.

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