The Trades Union Certification Officer was established in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 by Act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 in 1975.

Responsibilities

The Certification Officer is responsible for:

• maintaining a list of trade union
  Trade union
  A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
  
  s and employers' associations
• receiving and scrutinising annual returns from trade unions and employers' associations
• determining complaints concerning trade union elections, certain other ballots and breaches of trade union rules
• ensuring observance of statutory requirements governing mergers between trade unions and between employers' associations
• overseeing the political funds and the finances of trade unions and employers' associations
• certifying the independence of trade unions

Certification Officer

The current Certification Officer is David Cockburn, appointed on 1 August 2001 and re-appointed for a further three years in August 2004, and again in 2007. He has chaired the Industrial Law Society (ILS), the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), and the Employment Law Committee of the Law Society

Law society

A Law Society in current and former Commonwealth jurisdictions was historically an association of solicitors with a regulatory role that included the right to supervise the training, qualifications and conduct of lawyers/solicitors...

. He was also the founder treasurer of the Institute of Employment Rights. He is currently a vice-president of the ILS and the ELA and a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopaedia of Employment Law and the Industrial Law Journal. He is also a part-time chairman of Employment Tribunal

Employment tribunal

Employment Tribunals are tribunal non-departmental public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and employment...

s and a Visiting Professor at the Middlesex University

Middlesex University

Middlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...

Business School.

Recognition

In order to be recognised by the Officer, a union must first apply to be listed - a simple paper process, costing £150. But to be recognised as an independent union, with all the attendant legal benefits that follow, a union must undergo a more rigorous inspection to confirm its independence from employers. This currently costs £4066.