Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

My Lords, Amendments 155 and 156 stress the need to give unions adequate opportunity to make representations before enforcement action is taken. It gives them the chance to see what is in an inspector’s report before the certification officer is called upon to declare that a union has failed to comply with its duties. In other words, they are given a chance to put things right before being arraigned before the registrar of trade unions, who is the certification officer. Providing a chance to put things right before things become public and perhaps more entrenched seems to us to be a matter of good procedure in this kind of case. I think it is a useful suggestion and I should like to hear what the Minister has to say about it. I beg to move.