The Union Modernisation Fund has been an important source of funding of initiatives by the TUC and individual unions to promote, recruit and train trade union equality representatives in recent years. By the 2010 General Election the number had risen to 1400 - two thirds of which were in the public sector. An evaluation of the 'The role and impact of trade union equality representatives in Britain' is available online and an otherwise positive conclusion identifies the absence of a statutory right to time off (which was omitted from the Equality Act 2010) as a major barrier to the effectiveness of the role:
http://www.cassknowledge.com/sites/default/files/article-attachments/role-impact-trade-union-equality-britain-cass-knowledge.pdf
