Under the current provisions of the Trade Union Bill, ballots for industrial action in important public services will need at least 40% of union members to have voted in favour of them before strikes can go ahead. Ballots will also require at least a 50% turnout in order to be valid. The Government has now published its response to the consultation on which important public services should be covered by the new thresholds. The services are set out in detail in Annex A of the document under each of the following headings: Fire, Health, Education, Transport, Border security and Nuclear decommissioning. The Government will bring forward secondary legislation to specify these services (see the skeleton Regulations in Annex B) and has also indicated that it will apply the 40% threshold to private sector union members, where they are carrying out a specified important public service.

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