Employment Bill [HL]

That is an excellent point. To deal with another point before closing, my noble friend is absolutely right: the point at issue is whether the employment tribunal should take into account anything other than a code issued by ACAS. On disciplinary and grievance procedures, there are two other statutory ACAS codes and three Secretary of State-issued codes that have nothing to do with ACAS. There is also an ACAS code of practice relating to disclosure of information to trade unions for collective bargaining purposes and an ACAS code of practice for time off for trade union duties and activities. There are also industrial action ballots and a notice to employers on picketing, access and unfair practices during recognition and derecognition ballots. All of those would be taken into consideration when tribunals were coming to conclusions, not just the specific code issued by ACAS. I hope that we are not straining at a gnat here, but we want to ensure that as much information as possible gets into the process as early as possible so that we end up with early resolution of grievance and do not allow something to be inflamed to the point of disruption in the workplace. We should not allow my former profession to earn any more money than they have to.