Taxpayer foots bill for 16,000 full-time union officials

THOUSANDS of officials and civil servants in the public sector are paid by the taxpayer to work full-time for their unions, official figures show.

Data due to be published tomorrow will reveal that there are more than 16,000 full-time union officials who are on the public payroll.

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

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 spent 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 – spent millions of pounds on full-time union officials.

HM Revenue and Customs was found to be the largest spender on socalled “pilgrims” with a bill of £2.2million last year.

Oliver Dowden, a Cabinet Office minister, 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 front line services across the police, hospitals and councils.”

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