Employment Bill [HL]

I agree that even with the consent of the parties it seems to make nonsense of the whole idea of mediation and leaves him in this quasi-judicial capacity, having said at the mediation that anything that he heard at that mediation would, as it were, be erased from his mind and excluded from any further consideration. No doubt we will give the Minister a little time to ponder these matters between now and the next stage. The noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, says that he will certainly bring this back on Report, and there might be other ways of discussing it again in Committee, since we are being curtailed in the amount of time that we can have on it this evening. In the mean time, we ought to listen to what the Minister has to say, and I leave it to the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, on how he wishes to proceed.