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Written question asked by Robert Syms (Conservative) on Monday, 1 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 3 March 2010. It was answered by Vera Baird (Labour) on Tuesday, 9 March 2010 on behalf of the Solicitor General.

Trade Unions

Question
To ask the Solicitor-General how many days staff of the Law Officers' Departments spent on trade union activity in the latest year for which figures are available; and what recent estimate she has made of the annual cost to the public purse of such activity.
Answer

No days were spent by staff members of the Attorney-General's Office or the National Fraud Authority on trade union activity in 2008-09.HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has a Whitley council which meets quarterly and is attended by FDA and PCS representatives. Where it is necessary for union representatives to devote time to specific activities on personal cases, this is done by agreement with their line manager. No formal record is maintained.The Serious Fraud Office does not record details on the number of days spent by staff engaged on trade union activities.Information on the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is contained in the following table.

Department Estimate of the number of days spent on union activities 2008-09 Estimated cost¹ (£)
TSol 354 37,212
CPS² 4,068 535,915
¹ These are estimates based on the average pay grade of staff involved in trade union activity.
² The CPS data includes figures for HMRCPO which merged with CPS in January 2010. 126 days were spent on trade union activities by HMRCPO officials at an estimated cost of £18,791.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
507 c183W; 320668
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Trade unions Solicitor General
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk