Draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026 Draft Code of Practice on Electronic and Workplace Ballots For Statutory Trade Union Ballots
House of Commons · General Committees · 8 Jul 2026 · 39 speeches · Official Report
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Chair: Valerie Vaz
† Akehurst, Luke (North Durham) (Lab)
† Barros-Curtis, Mr Alex (Cardiff West) (Lab)
† Cooper, Daisy (St Albans) (LD)
† Costigan, Deirdre (Lord Commissioner of His Majesty ’ s Treasury)
† Davies, Gareth (Grantham and Bourne) (Con)
† Dearden, Kate (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade)
† Francis, Daniel (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Lab)
† Griffiths, Alison (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
† Hurley, Patrick (Southport) (Lab)
† McAllister, Douglas (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab)
† Naish, James (Rushcliffe) (Lab)
† Paul, Rebecca (Reigate) (Con)
† Ranger, Andrew (Wrexham) (Lab)
† Rushworth, Sam (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
† Tidball, Dr Marie (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
† Vickers, Martin (Brigg and Immingham) (Con)
Young, Claire (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)
George Stokes, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
Sixth Delegated Legislation Committee
Wednesday 8 July 2026
[Valerie Vaz in the Chair ]
Draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026
The Chair
Before we start, ladies and gentlemen may remove their jackets in this heat.
I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026.
The Chair
With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Code of Practice on Electronic and Workplace Ballots for Statutory Trade Union Ballots.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. The draft order and the draft code of practice were laid before the House on 22 June 2026. The statutory instrument and the guidance that we are debating relate to statutory trade union ballots under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The instrument also corrects a minor error in unfair dismissal legislation in section 105 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, to reflect changes made under the Employment Rights Act 2025. At present, the law requires almost all statutory trade union ballots to be conducted solely by post. That approach has not kept pace with the way in which people live, work and participate in democratic processes. It makes holding a ballot unduly expensive and time-consuming, and it can act as an unnecessary barrier to democratic participation in a union. The statutory instrument addresses that directly. It will bring trade union balloting into line with modern secure voting practices that are already widely used in other contexts, including by political parties and listed companies. In so doing, it will deliver on a Government manifesto commitment to supporting greater participation in the democratic processes that shape working life. The practical changes we are making are long overdue. They are about enabling trade union members to take part in union decisions in more accessible and convenient ways, while maintaining the high standards of fairness, secrecy and security that...
It is a great pleasure to serve on this Committee and, as always, to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. It is also a pleasure to see the Minister in her place. I thank her for the explanation that she offered of the Government’s intentions with the draft order. It is important to make it clear from the outset that secondary legislation is always a balancing act. In this case, the balance is between modernising participation and trade union democracy, and ensuring that the safeguards protecting the integrity, security and fairness of statutory ballots keep pace with the methods used to conduct them. Those aims are not mutually exclusive, and it is our job to ensure that we get them right. To that end-this will be no surprise-I have a set of questions for the Minister, and I hope that she will be able to provide some answers. First, parts 1 and 2 of the draft order will, for the first time, permit electronic, hybrid and workplace voting for statutory trade union ballots, as the Minister said. Paragraph 5.14 of the Minister’s explanatory memorandum explains the Government’s reasoning against the pilot for electronic balloting, but I could not see any equivalent justification for workplace balloting, which, as the impact assessment contained in the memorandum confirms, has not been costed. Will the Minister explain why workplace voting, an entirely new voting method, will be introduced by the draft order without a pilot or costed evidence? Secondly, the Government confirm on page 2...
I thank the shadow Minister for his remarks and questions. The draft order addresses a simple issue: the current requirement to conduct statutory trade union ballots solely by post has not kept pace with how people engage today, and balloting has become an overly burdensome and expensive process. That is why the range of options I outlined-online, hybrid and workplace balloting-which the shadow Minister alluded to, are necessary. The requirement to conduct ballots by post was born out of the legitimate need to guarantee secrecy and protection from union, third-party or employer interference, but those principles will not be reduced by this statutory instrument; they will, in fact, be improved upon in many cases. On the shadow Minister’s point about the chosen methods, electronic balloting has been a well-established option for businesses and political parties-including his own party-for many years. The Government will deliver modern and secure electronic workplace balloting, as we made clear in our manifesto and our wider Make Work Pay agenda. We are pleased to have progressed in that work and to have laid this legislation-it is a shame that the Opposition cannot support it. We have engaged with stakeholders, worked with experts and consulted on the draft code of practice to develop our approach to delivering the balloting methods for statutory union ballots. We are confident that our approach reduces bureaucracy and enables the increased participation of union members,...
The Minister has sought to address my question about the responsible person, but can she see the logic that I am trying to deploy? Why can a trade union be designated a responsible person, but an independent scrutineer cannot? Does she see how that opens up questions about the independence of the process, and did she think consider an independent scrutineer to avoid that criticism?
I was just getting to the powers that we are using for the statutory instrument. Trade unions will be required to be the responsible person because they are best placed to consider the factors and criteria before choosing the ballot method. We have gone through the range of options that will be available. As I mentioned, the choice must include postal voting, even though that is not a new method. As I have mentioned, we have included in the legislation a presumption to reduce the factors and criteria to be considered for postal voting, to reflect the fact that it is a long-established method with which members will already be familiar and that trade unions know how best to approach it. However, the responsible person must not be aware of “any reason why it would not be possible to satisfy the requirements of the relevant legislation which relate to the means of voting which are to be used in the ballot or election.” That has been made clear to trade unions, which will have been designated the responsible person, alongside the range of other options that they must consider. That communicates clearly to trade unions their roles and responsibilities as the responsible person. As the shadow Minister knows, the responsibilities of independent scrutineers will continue in their role under the legislation. Independent scrutineers, which the shadow Minister asked about, are either named in or meet the requirements of the Trade Union Ballots and Elections (Independent Scrutineer...
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026.
DRAFT CODE OF PRACTICE ON ELECTRONIC AND WORKPLACE BALLOTS FOR STATUTORY TRADE UNION BALLOTS
Motion made, and Question put,
That the Committee has considered the draft Code of Practice on Electronic and Workplace Ballots for Statutory Trade Union Ballots. -(Kate Dearden.)
Committee rose.