To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the compliance rates of trade union facility time data reporting in terms of the (a) projected and (b) actual number of returns in 2019-20.
Answered on
20 June 2022
The Government is committed to ensuring that facility time usage within the public sector remains accountable and represents value for money to the taxpayer.
With the exception of the education sector, compliance rates for all other sectors, using the Government’s reporting portal, for the 2020/21 reporting year exceeded 60% of expected returns. This was an overall improvement compared to the 2019/20 reporting year where both education and the NHS sectors were below a 60% compliance rate.
The Government is taking action this year to ensure that overall compliance rates continue to rise. Greater transparency will enhance accountability over the spending of taxpayers’ money and practices within the public sector.
The full sector breakdown for the compliance rates over the last two years is below:
Sector | Compliance | |
2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
Civil Service | 100% | 100% |
Education | 18% | 18% |
Local Authority | 69% | 64% |
NHS | 46% | 66% |
Police | 69% | 77% |
Network Rail is not currently in scope for the relevant facility time reporting regulations; we are open to representations on this matter.