Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, Amendment 166ZB is in my name and those of the noble Lords, Lord Elystan-Morgan and Lord Collins of Highbury. Of course, I am supportive of the other amendments that have been moved and spoken to. I note that the other amendments mention payment to charities. When I signed up to the metal workers’ union as a young apprentice, it was regulated under the Friendly Societies Act. It was the same as the insurance companies such as the Co-op, the Salvation Army or the Wesleyan—they were charities. The trade union movement has always had a tradition of not only looking at wages and conditions within the factory but trying to go beyond that to help the member and his family. It knew that there was no point in just fighting for wages and conditions alone; there were many problems outside the place of work. Often that meant that, particularly when workers were involved in an accident, the unions had to get in touch with a solicitor who was willing to help, particularly in the bad old days. Not so long ago in my native city of Glasgow, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery—which I would recommend anyone who visits Glasgow to go and see—had an exhibition of trade union banners. Trade union banners today tend to have big messages saying ““Cameron out!””—and before that it was ““Thatcher out!”” or, even before that, ““Heath out!””—but these old trade union banners were absolute works of art. They displayed exactly what the trade was all about. I remember the coach builders’ banner; one of the members had had an accident in the street and you saw the accident—the poor man had broken his leg—and another part of the banner showed him in bed and the officers of the branch turning up, and the caption underneath was, ““When I was ill, you visited me””. My point is that there was always care within the trade union movement. I know that many people, particularly in the media, can point to the salaries of the trade union leaders and make negative comments about them. But it must be remembered that the vast majority of people working in trade unions do so on a voluntary basis without any financial help. As regards accidents in the workplace, some people would think that an engineering workshop is very dangerous but I know, through my work with the National Union of Public Employees, that a hospital kitchen can be a very dangerous place. A person can break a hand through a fall in a kitchen. Usually, the person who starts an inquiry is a shop steward who gets the information together. Then there is a visit from the full-time trade union officer who would need transport and an office from which to operate, with secretarial back-up, in order that the paperwork can be put together to send to the solicitor. It is only right and fitting to have a referral fee which can help with the ongoing costs of a trade union office. Again I go back to the point that most people think, when they join a trade union, that it is for wages and conditions, but this is another area of help that is given. There is a financial cost and it is right and fitting that the trade union should get a referral fee to offset those costs.