Section 8 Lists of trade unions and employers’ associations.P1

The F1Certification Officer . . . F2 shall maintain a list of trade unions and a list of employers’ associations containing the names of those organisations which are entitled to have their names entered therein under the following provisions of this section.

The Certification Officer shall enter in the list of trade unions or employers’ associations, as the case may be, the name of every organisation of workers or of employers which—

except an organisation which appears to him not to be a trade union or, as the case may be, employers’ association within the meaning of this Act.

Any organisation of workers or of employers, whenever formed whose name is not entered in the relevant list may apply to the Certification Officer to have its name so entered and, subject to subsection (5) below, the Certification Officer shall, if satisfied that the organisation is a trade union or employers’ association and that subsection (4) below has been complied with, enter the name of that organisation in the relevant list.

An application under subsection (3) above shall be made in such form and manner as the Certification Officer may require and be accompanied by a fee of F3£40 or such other fee as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State and also by—

The Certification Officer shall not under subsection (3) above enter the name of an organisation in the relevant list if that name is—

If it appears to the Certification Officer, whether on application made to him or otherwise, that an organisation whose name is entered in the relevant list is not a trade union or employers’ association . . . F4 he may remove its name from the relevant list, but shall not do so without giving the organisation notice of his intention to do so and without considering any representations made to him by the organisation during a period specified in the notice (being not less than twenty-eight days beginning with the date of the notice). F5(6A)

The Certification Officer shall remove the name of an organisation from the relevant list—

Any organisation aggrieved by the refusal of the Certification Officer to enter its name in the relevant list or by a decision of his to remove its name from that list may appeal, in accordance with F7section 136(3) of The M1Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978, to the Employment Appeal Tribunal; and on any such appeal the Tribunal, if satisfied that the name should be or remain so entered, shall declare that fact and give directions to the Certification Officer accordingly.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F8

The Certification Officer shall at all reasonable hours keep available for public inspection (free of charge) copies of the lists of trade unions and employers’ associations, as for the time being in force, and a copy of each list shall be included in the annual report made by the Chief F9Certification Officer under paragraph 13(2) of schedule 1 to The M2Employment Protection Act 1975.

F10The fact that the name of an organisation is included in the list of trade unions or employers associations shall be evidence (and in Scotland sufficient evidence) that the organisation is a trade union or, as the case may be, an employers’ association, and on the application of the organisation the Certification Officer shall issue it with a certificate that its name is included in the relevant list; and any document purporting to be such a certificate shall be evidence (and in Scotland sufficient evidence) that the name of the organisation is entered in the relevant list . . .