Catalogue description Records of the Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employers' Associations

The Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employers' Associations was established under section 7 of the Employment Protection Act 1975 which provided for the appointment by the Secretary of State, after consultation with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, of a Certification Officer. The act also laid down that the service should provide requisite staff, accommodation, equipment and other facilities for the Certification Officer whose appointment took effect on 1 February 1976.

Under the act the Certification Officer took over functions in relation to trade unions and employers' associations exercised previously by the Registry of Friendly Societies before the passage of the Industrial Relations Act 1971 and after its repeal under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974. He also took custody of returns etc. under various trade union acts held by the Registry of Friendly Societies, including those submitted to the former Registry of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations, established under the Industrial Relations Act 1971.

The transferred functions involved the maintenance of lists of trade unions and employers' associations in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 and ensuring such organisations carried out their statutory duties in relation to their accounts. Similarly, responsibility was assumed for the periodical examination of members' superannuation schemes. The Certification Officer also took over the registry's obligations as regards the transfer of engagements, amalgamation and changes of name under the Trade Union (Amalgamations, etc.) Act 1964. A further task which was transferred was to ensure that procedures governing the setting up and operation of political funds and for dealing with complaints from members under the Trade Union Act 1913 were observed. (Between September 1971 and September 1974 these functions were carried out by the Registrar of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations).

The Employment Protection Act 1975 also empowered the Certification Officer to determine whether a trade union is independent as defined in the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974. That is to say whether:

(a) it is not under the domination or control of an employer or a group of employers or of one or more employers' associations; and

(b) is not liable to interference by an employer or any such group or association (arising out of the provision of financial or material support or by any other means whatsoever) tending towards such control.

Any union entered on the list maintained under section 8 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 may apply for a Certificate of Independence. The Office keeps a record of all applications and decisions and makes them available for public inspection. Any trade union aggrieved by the refusal of the Certification Officer to issue it with a certificate of independence, or by his decision to withdraw its certificate, may appeal on questions of fact or law to the Employment Appeal Tribunal also established under the 1975 act.

The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 consolidated all the earlier employment relations legislation but made no changes to the substantive law. The Employment Relations Act 1999 amended the 1992 act by extending the Certification Officer's powers to deal with a range of additional complaints that had previously been presented to the court with the assistance of the Office of the Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members (this organisation was abolished under the Employment Relations Act 1999). The Certification Officer is now able propose and enforce a remedy if a complaint is upheld.

The Certification Officer worked in close co-operation with the Department of Employment in maintaining the Directory of Employers' Associations, Trade Unions, Joint Organisations etc. and for producing the official statistics of the numbers and membership of trade unions published each year in the Department of Employment Gazette. He also produces an annual report on the work of the Office.

The Certification Officer is authorised to appoint one or more assistant certification officers and to appoint an assistant certification officer for Scotland, delegating to the latter such functions as he thinks appropriate in relation to organisations whose principal office is in Scotland.

Following a cabinet reshuffle in July 1995, ministerial responsibility for the Certification Office was transferred to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Following machinery of government changes in June 2007 the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform became the responsible minister.