Trade Union Policy, Employment Rights Directorate
Department for Business and Trade
Old Admiralty Building
Admiralty Place
London
SW1A 2DY
31 March 2026
Dear Trade Union Policy, Employment Rights Directorate
Consultation: on the revised Draft Code of Practice on Access and Unfair Practices During the Recognition and Derecognition Process
This response is submitted by the Local Government Association (LGA) on behalf of local authorities. The LGA is a cross-party organisation that is the national voice of local government. We work with councils and central government to support, promote and improve local government. The LGA covers every part of England and Wales (through the WLGA) and includes county and district councils, London boroughs, metropolitan and unitary councils.
The Workforce Team of the LGA offers advice on employment issues and represents local government employer interests to central government, government agencies, trades unions and other interested parties. The LGA’s Local Government Resources Committee, whose remit includes workforce issues, comprises elected members from the LGA’s political groups providing cross party leadership to the LGA’s policy input. This submission has the support of all the political groups at the LGA.
The LGA manages sectoral collective bargaining in local government and national collective bargaining arrangements for fire, education and related sectors, covering, in total, over two million employees. Elected councillors (and other employer organisations where appropriate) and nationally recognised trade unions work together in a positive way to reach collective agreements on key employment issues such as pay and other terms and conditions. This helps to ensure that councils, and other employers, have pay, terms and conditions that are compliant with legislation and, where possible, model best practice.
The LGA works closely with member organisations and provides advice and support on employment matters. Given the context outlined above, it is vital that the views of councils are given full and careful consideration in the consultation.
This submission, responding to the areas about which we have most information or experience, is based on our knowledge of the issues as they impact on local government. It also refers to previous responses to relevant, recent consultations which we have attached for ease of reference.
We have not answered every question in the consultations but have, instead, focused on those areas that are of particular interest and importance to the local government sector, and where there will be most consensus across councils on the issues. We have also encouraged councils to respond directly to the consultations.
Part one
We do not have any comments to make in respect of the changes proposed to the Draft Code of Practice which have been made in order to reflect the provisions of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025 (i.e. legislative changes and structure).
In respect of the changes made regarding ‘Working practices and language’, we would echo our previous response in respect of such matters:
In respect of frequency of access and notice periods for access, individual local government employers will want to submit their own views, depending on their individual circumstances. We also anticipate that individual local government employers will submit their own views as to any further matters to which they consider CAC must have regard when making determinations on access.
However, we expect that local government employers will consider it important that these proposed arrangements do not interfere with operational priorities, and their provision of vital public services. We presume there will be consistency with the Acas Code of Practice on Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities given the proposal is silent on the issue of time off for employees to engage in these activities.
We would also add that the work locations within the local government sector can cause particular issues in respect of arranging meetings (for example in schools, waste depots or other ‘controlled’ environments where broader access is necessarily limited for good reason) so balancing essential provision of statutory functions with extended access should be considered as part of these proposals for longer, more regular trade union meetings.
In relation to digital access (‘via the dissemination of materials via an email or on an employer’s intranet’), individual local government employers will want to submit their own views, depending on their individual circumstances. We would encourage there to be consideration around where responsibility for content of such materials lies where it is being produced by the trade union but disseminated via an employer’s system. We would like there to be consideration as to safeguards for such content and accessibility to be part of any guidance produced on which both parties can clearly see their responsibilities set out.
Part two
In respect of the proposed changes to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act (TULRCA) 1992, there is reference to the CAC requesting workplace email addresses for all workers in a bargaining unit from employers. Whilst recognising that individual local government employers have different ways of working, we would raise that there may be ‘deskless’ workers in the sector without workplace email addresses. As such, some consideration may need to be given to whether and how the CAC may contact such workers.
The final element of this part of the consultation seeks views on whether legislation is required to provide duties preventing parties from the following (which would / could apply during ballots conducted by any method):
- interfering with the delivery of a ballot provided to an eligible voter.
- seeking to determine how or whether a worker participated in a ballot.
- seeking to interfere with a ballot or submit a vote on behalf of a worker.
- misleading a worker about the secrecy or anonymity of their vote to discourage participation in a ballot in which they are eligible to vote.
We are confident that the kinds of practices outlined in this part are not ones which occur in the local government sector, so whether legislation is required to safeguard against them is unlikely to have an impact on our sector. That said, we recognise that is not the case across the entirety of the country in respect of other, particularly vulnerable, workforces. Whether legislation is needed should depend on the evidence provided as part of this consultation.
If you would like to discuss our submission further, please contact [email protected]
Yours faithfully
Councillor Pete Marland,
Chair, Local Government Resources Committee,
Local Government Association