Facility Time: £830 Million and a Question for Taxpayers

Public-sector Trade Union facility time has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds since national reporting began in 2017/18.

The Workers of England Union’s current analysis of Cabinet Office data indicates approximately £830 million was reported in facility-time costs between 2017/18 and 2024/25.

The figure is a WEU calculation from Government data, rather than a total published by the Cabinet Office, and is being reconciled against the latest corrected datasets.

Facility time allows public-sector employees to undertake recognised Trade Union duties while continuing to receive their salary from their public-sector employer.

The WEU recognises that properly controlled facility time can have benefits. Experienced representatives can help resolve disputes, support employees and address workplace problems. But the Workers of England Union believes that workplace reps are a poor substitute for independent Trade Union reps and a following article will highlight the reasons for this belief.

However, the figures raise a wider question about who should ultimately pay for Trade Union representation.

Public-sector facility time

Source: Cabinet Office facility-time datasets. Figures are provisional WEU calculations and are being reconciled against the latest corrected Government files.

The issue becomes particularly relevant where Trade Unions also provide substantial financial support to political parties. Electoral Commission records show significant Trade Union donations to Labour over many years.

Parliamentary analysis of Electoral Commission data found that Trade Unions donated £64.8 million to Labour between 2010 and 2015 alone.

This raises a legitimate question for debate:

Where a Trade Union chooses to provide substantial financial support to a political party, should taxpayers also meet part of the cost of that Trade Union's workplace representation in publicly funded organisations?

The scale can be illustrated another way.

Over the same eight-year period from 2017/18 to 2024/25, approximately £830 million could have met the employment costs of thousands of frontline public-sector workers. Allowing approximately for salary, employer National Insurance and pension contributions, the equivalent would be:

• Around 2,250 Band 5 nurses employed each year for eight years*
• Around 2,125 newly qualified teachers employed each year for eight years*
• Around 2,250 firefighters employed each year for eight years*

These are separate comparisons, not a combined total.

They are intended to illustrate the scale of £830 million over the same eight-year period as the facility-time expenditure.

*Actual employment costs vary according to salary progression, pension arrangements, allowances and other employment costs.

The statutory national reporting requirement appears to have now ended, with 2024/25 being the final year collected by the Cabinet Office. Again, we will cover this in another article.

The WEU believes that makes scrutiny of the available eight years of data particularly important.

The question is not whether workers deserve effective representation. They 100% do!

The question is who should pay for it, and what level of publicly funded facility time can be justified.

Stephen Morris
General Secretary
Workers of England Union

Key Takeaways

• £830M Eight-Year Facility Time Cost: WEU calculations from Cabinet Office data show public sector facility time cost approximately £829.8 million between 2017/18 and 2024/25.
• Political Funding Debate: Questions whether taxpayers should fund union facility time when major trade unions simultaneously contribute tens of millions to political parties.
• Frontline Worker Equivalents: The £830 million spent could have funded approximately 2,250 Band 5 nurses, 2,125 teachers, or 2,250 firefighters annually over eight years.
• Final Reporting Scrutiny: With Cabinet Office national reporting ending after 2024/25, rigorous analysis of the eight-year dataset is vital for public transparency.