Explanatory note

These Regulations further amend the scheme under which the Certification Officer makes payments to independent trade unions in respect of postal, printing and stationery expenses which they have incurred in holding secret postal ballots for certain purposes.

The scheme was last amended by the Funds for Trade Union Ballots (Amendment) Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/1123). The amendments made by these Regulations are made largely to reflect in the scheme new statutory requirements for independent scrutiny and for numbering of ballot papers in respect of certain ballots brought in by the Employment Act 1988 (c. 19) and coming into force on 1st February 1989.

These Regulations come into force on 1st February 1989 and the amendments they contain apply to a ballot if the last date for the casting of votes in the ballot fell on or after that date unless, in the case of an election ballot in respect of which section 2 of the Trade Union Act 1984 was required to be satisfied, the latest time at which a person could have become a candidate in the election fell before that date.