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16,000 officials and civil servants are paid by the taxpayer to work full time for their unions, new figures show

Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden has pledged to cut down on union roles - UK Parliament
Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden has pledged to cut down on union roles - UK Parliament

Thousands of officials and civil servants working across the public sector are paid by the taxpayer to work full time for their unions, new figures show.

Government figures will published  on Monday will show that there are more than 16,000 full time union officials who are on the public pay roll.

The figure is far in excess of previous estimates. An investigation by the Telegraph in 2011 estimated the number to be around 1,785 public sector workers, costing tens of millions of pounds in wages.

Public bodies have a duty by law to start to publish the information by the end of July and are now committed to publish the information annually. 

The issue rose to prominence in 2011 when Jane Pilgrim, an NHS worker who worked full time for health union Unison criticised the Government’s health policies.

The trawl of Government records shows there are 16,664 full time "Pilgrims" across police forces, NHS bodies, councils, and Government departments.

The actual figure is likely to be far higher because a wide range of public bodies are still to report their figures.

In Opposition the Tories pledged to clamp down on this so-called "facility time" - the official term for the practice of allowing staff to undertake trade union business during work hours.

Labour-run councils were found to have the largest amount of money spent on pilgrims, with £1.1million a year spent on 35 full time staff in Birmingham and nearly £500,000 annually sent on union officials in Liverpool.

The Metropolitan Police spent £545,000 a year on 137 full time union officials while universities - which derive a large proportion of their income from student loans - spending millions of pounds on full time union officials.

HM Revenue and Customs was found to be the largest spender on so-called "pilgrims" with a bill of £2.2million last year. 

Oliver Dowden MP, a Cabinet Office minister, said he would be chasing up bodies which had not reported their figures.

He said: “For too long in the public sector, trade unions have received taxpayer handouts that are poorly controlled and bad value for money. 

"Proper controls will save taxpayers’ money and allow more resources to be spent on frontline services across the police, hospitals and councils.

“We have already delivered these reforms in the Civil Service, whilst ensuring fair play in the workplace. 

"By opening up the books, we are now demonstrating the scope for the wider public sector to follow this example."

The proportion of the Civil Sevice pay bill spent on facility time has fallen form 0.26 per cent in 2012 to 0.05 per cent this year. The private sector average is 0.04 per cent.

The information is being published under the Trade Union Act 2016 which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to abolish in 2016.