§ Mr. ReedTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will give a breakdown, by type of organisation, of the respondents to the consultation exercise on providing statutory rights for union learning representatives. [35051]
§ John HealeyThere were 89 responses to the consultation. Of these
31 (35 per cent.) were from trade unions or other worker representative organisations (16 being from employers);24 (27 per cent.) were from trade unions or other worker representative bodies;11 (12 per cent.) were from local learning and skills councils;Nine (10 per cent.) were from other representative bodies (such as learning partnerships);Nine (10 per cent.) were from individual union learning representatives;Five (6 per cent.) were from individual employees.The majority of respondents agreed strongly with the proposals in the consultation document that union learning representatives should qualify as such if elected or appointed according to the rules of the union and that they should undergo training within a specified period. That is why we have included a clause in the new Employment Bill that will give statutory backing to union learning representatives. It will reinforce the invaluable role that union learning reps are currently playing in the workplace to promote work force development and open up new training opportunities for their colleagues.