Thank you. I think it’s fair to say it will be obvious to many that Labour cannot support any changes to the Bill for fear of upsetting their union paymasters. The 2017 election campaign is clear evidence of this, with £4 million out of £4.5 million in campaign donations in May coming directly from the unions. That’s 91 per cent, and I would call on those Members here today to declare the same interests that you did at committee stage. Let the people out there know just how you’ve done well out of the Labour unions.

Llywydd, the Welsh Government’s explanatory memorandum suggests that the cost of check-off is minimal and is unhelpfully accompanied by an unrelated table detailing the cost savings for the 40 per cent threshold. In reality, however, the annual cost to the UK taxpayer to help fund union payment is not insignificant. In March, as part of the House of Lords secondary legislation scrutiny committee on the draft Trade Union (Deduction of Union Subscriptions from Wages in the Public Sector) Regulations 2017, the Cabinet Office stated that the current cost to the public sector for the provision of check-off services is in the region of £12.5 million per year. At present, trade unions only provide an estimated £2.74 million for this service, so there is an additional uncollected cost to the taxpayer of £9.7 million per year. Now, if we take 5 per cent of this cost as coming from Wales, this is a cost to the Welsh public purse of £485,000 per year—almost £0.5 million.

This is a significant amount of money, but, again, those who have had large donations during election time might not think so, and something not acknowledged by either the Cabinet Secretary or many of those who gave evidence on this matter. Further, the UK Government has accepted the principle of allowing check-off to continue where the union meets the cost and where there is an agreement with the employer to do so. This seeks to allow a public sector employer to make deductions from its workers’ wages in respect of trade union subscriptions only if those workers have the option to pay their trade union subscriptions by other means, or if arrangements have been made for the union to make reasonable payments to the employer in respect of the making of the deductions.

This Bill undermines modern, flexible working patterns and harks back to an age of trade union manipulation, cynically underpinned by their links to the Labour Party. So, in conclusion, Llywydd, this amendment seeks only to ensure full transparency for employees, flexibility and protection in terms of paying subscriptions, and to make savings in the region of £0.5 million to the public purse in Wales, and I encourage and urge all Members to support it.