Trade Unions

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many days staff of his Department and its agencies spent on trade union activity in the latest year for which figures are available; and what recent estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of such activity. (320612)

We have interpreted ‘Trade Union Activity’ as the facility time DEFRA and our agencies provide to our trade union representatives.

DEFRA and our agencies currently provide trade union representatives with approximately 6,805 days facility time annually.

For the year 2009-10 the cost to the Department has been estimated as £1,200,000.