Member

I will now range a little more freely. My noble friend Lady Coffey referred to the statistics behind trade union membership. The noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady of Upper Holloway, said, in a previous group, that support for trade unions has been consistent over four decades, but the statistics do not really bear that out. The latest statistics from 2024 show that 6.4 million UK employees belong to a union—22% of all employees. That number is down from 22.4% in 2023 and 32.4% in 1995. Of the number who are members of unions, 2.5 million work for private sector organisations, and they represent 12.3% of the total in the private sector. So 87.7% have chosen not to join a union.