Our General Secretary, Dave Penman was last elected General Secretary on 7 December 2016. Section 46 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 sets down the duty for Trade Unions to hold elections for certain positions every five years. One of these positions is General Secretary.

Therefore, Dave Penman’s current term of office ends on 6 December 2021 and the FDA has to complete the process of election of the FDA General Secretary by 6 December 2021.

The Executive Committee (EC) is required under FDA Rule 22(b) to make arrangements and determine a timetable for the election. This same rule allows for the EC to nominate any person (whether or not a member) before it is open to members to nominate a candidate.

In March 2021, the EC met to consider the General Secretary election process and whether we wished to invite our current General Secretary, Dave Penman, to make a presentation at the EC meeting on 5 May 2021 outlining his vision for the FDA over the next 5 years and reflecting on lessons learnt from his current term. The presentation would be to enable the EC to decide whether they wished to nominate Dave as their preferred candidate or to enter into a recruitment exercise during which they would consider candidates as well as Dave. The EC agreed to invite Dave to present on 5 May 2021.

During his presentation, Dave highlighted the successes of the FDA under his leadership, remaining engaged and relevant to members; defending civil servants; building the external profile and being the go-to civil service union for the press, alongside having the most successful period of growth of membership in the union’s history.

At the EC meeting on 9 June 2021, it was agreed to appoint Popularis (Nutsey Lane, Totton, Southampton SO40 3RL) as scrutineers for the General Secretary election and adopt the following timetable:

Wednesday 23 June 2021 – formal notice of the election is placed on the website and emailed to members (if we have no nominated email address you will receive this via post).

It is open for any member who wishes to stand to do so if nominated by no less than thirty members, including a minimum of five members from each of five different constituencies (as determined under FDA rules). A nomination form can be downloaded here:

The nomination form should be submitted to Anne Hock, Popularis Ltd. Either by email annehock@popularis.org or by post:

Anne Hock

Popularis Limited

Nutsey Lane

Totton

Southampton

SO40 3RL

Monday 6 September 2021 – Nominations close

If there are no other valid nominees then Dave will be re-elected as General Secretary and the process will be completed on Monday 6 September 2021 with official notice from the scrutineers on Tuesday 7 September 2021.

If there are other valid nominees then the timetable is as follows:

Tuesday 14 September 2021 – Closing date for election addresses, scrutineers to be provided with the names of validly nominated candidates and other materials

Tuesday 21 September 2021 – issue of voting papers

Tuesday 12 October 2021 (noon) – ballot closes

Wednesday 13 October 2021 – receipt of scrutineers’ report completes the process and the result is announced to the membership. 

Please contact info@fda.org.uk if you require any further information regarding the election.