Section 226B

The trade union shall, before the ballot in respect of the industrial action is held, appoint a qualified person (“the scrutineer”) whose terms of appointment shall require him to carry out in relation to the ballot the functions of— in relation to voting papers sent or to be sent in accordance with paragraph 14(1) of Schedule A1A or provided in accordance with paragraph 16(5)(a) of that Schedule, supervising the production of the voting papers, undertaking the distribution of the voting papers and being the person to whom the voting papers are returned; where electronic voting forms are to be used for the ballot— generating and distributing the voting access methods; maintaining the electronic voting system; maintaining the audit logs; appropriately retaining relevant personal information, voting information, voting access method information and the audit logs; in the case of a ballot for which workplace voting is a selected means of voting— supervising the production of the voting papers; sending notice of the ballot in accordance with section 230D; providing voting papers to persons entitled to vote in the ballot; setting up and maintaining voting stations (within the meaning of section 230E(3)); counting the votes cast by the return of voting papers at voting stations; taking such steps as appear to him to be appropriate for the purpose of enabling him to make a report to the trade union (see section 231B); and making the report as soon as reasonably practicable after the date of the ballot and, in any event, not later than the end of the period of four weeks beginning with that date. A person is a qualified person in relation to a ballot if— he satisfies such conditions as may be specified for the purposes of this section by order of the Secretary of State or is himself so specified; ... the trade union has no grounds for believing either that he will carry out the functions conferred on him under subsection (1) otherwise than competently or that his independence in relation to the union, or in relation to the ballot, might reasonably be called into question , and in the case of a ballot for which electronic voting or hybrid voting is a selected means of voting, the computer networks and systems which the person intends to use for conducting the ballot are covered by one or more qualifying Cyber Essentials Plus certificates awarded to the person. An order under paragraph (a) shall be made by statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament. For the purposes of subsection (2)— “Cyber Essentials Plus certificate” means a certificate awarded in accordance with Cyber Essentials Plus Test Specification v3.2, or a later version of that document, published by the Government Communications Headquarters; a Cyber Essentials Plus certificate awarded to a person is a “qualifying Cyber Essentials Plus certificate” if its expiry date is such that the certificate will remain valid for the duration of the ballot for which the person is appointed. The trade union shall ensure that the scrutineer duly carries out the functions conferred on him under subsection (1) and that there is no interference with the carrying out of those functions from the union or any of its members, officials or employees. The trade union shall comply with all reasonable requests made by the scrutineer for the purposes of, or in connection with, the carrying out of those functions. The trade union must, so far as reasonably practicable, send to the scrutineer at least one of the following in respect of each person who is eligible to vote by electronic voting— an email address which meets the requirements in subsection (6); a mobile telephone number which meets the requirements in subsection (6). The requirements are that the email address or mobile telephone number— was not provided to the person by and is not controlled by— the person’s employer in their capacity as the person’s employer, or the trade union, has not been provided to the scrutineer in respect of any other person for the purposes of the ballot, and has been provided by the person to the trade union for the purpose of communication between the person and the trade union. Where workplace voting is a selected means of voting for a ballot, the trade union must send to the scrutineer a list of the names of the persons eligible to vote by workplace voting.

← 5 · All articles · 1 →

Source: legislation.gov.uk · retrieved 2026-09-04