Facility time attacked

Cabinet secretary Francis Maude is to consult over civil service union officials’ facility time, he told the Tory Party conference last month.

Claiming the practice had got “way out of hand” he said he would consult on cutting the amount of time civil servants can spend on union business, and ending full-time secondments to the union.

The PCS civil service union said that facility time accounts for just 0.2% of staff time across the service, but that much of that could be avoided if the government reinstated national pay and conditions negotiations.