Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – 1. The details of any office accommodation your organisation provides to staff to carry out trade union business. Please include details of: · space measured in square feet · How much of this space is contained within entirely separate buildings (i.e. occupied solely by staff carrying out trade union business) · Whether a professional valuation of the market rental value of the space has been sought either in-house or externally, and if so, what the valuation of the space was · Any charges the council levy for office space given to trade unions.
Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) does not provide any areas within the ECFRS estate for sole use of a trade union.
Question 2 – 2. Do you deduct trade union subscriptions for any of your employees via payroll (sometimes known as the "check off" system)? If so, do you charge a fee to the trade unions concerned for providing this service?
Yes, we do deduct trade union subscriptions for some of our employees.
Yes, we do charge a fee to the trade unions for the provision of this service.
Question 3 –With regard to trade union facility time, please provide the total cost of facility time from your pay bill for the financial year 2023/24 and the budget for the current financial year. Please also advise the current number of employees that you fund to be union officials, measured as full-time equivalents? (For guidance on definitions please refer to the Government's Transparency Code for local government: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-transparency-code- 2015/local-government-transparency-code-2015)
2023 – 2024 Trade Union Facility time spend was £32,700.
No current employees are funded as Trade Union Officials, measured as full time equivalents.
Question 4 – Please advise any estimates for other costs met for those staff on trade union facility time apart from salaries - including travel expenses, office supplies, telephone expenses and energy bills.
Not applicable.
We hope you find this information useful.
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essex- fire.gov.uk).
Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.
All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.
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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review.
Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.