About us

The Certification Officer is responsible for statutory functions relating to trade unions and employers’ associations.

Who we are

The Certification Officer (CO) is supported by 6 staff in London.

The Certification Officer’s responsibilities are to:

maintain a list of trade unions and employers’ associations
ensure compliance with statutory requirements for annual returns from trade unions and employers’ associations, and keeping them available for public inspection
determine complaints concerning trade union elections, certain other ballots and certain breaches of trade union rules
ensuring observance of statutory requirements governing mergers between trade unions and between employers’ associations
oversee the political funds and the finances of trade unions and employers’ associations
certify the independence of trade unions
act as the ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure Regulations 2014, so that workers or employees of trade unions and employers associations are protected if they report fraud or financial irregularities (whistleblowing) to the CO (Whistleblowing: list of prescribed people and bodies)

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The Certification Officer’s priorities are to:

ensure all its functions are carried out as efficiently, as economically, as fairly and as far as possible in accordance with the Government’s administrative strategy
work with Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to ensure that the new obligations on trade unions and powers for the CO contained in the Trade Union Act 2016 are brought in effectively

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