Employment Bill [HL]

I rise briefly to support my noble friend’s amendment. Like him, I declare an interest as I am also an accredited mediator with CEDR; indeed, my noble friend introduced me to mediation. My noble friend said that he came to it with the disadvantage of being a lawyer. I explained to him that I had forgotten most of the law that I had ever known, and he assured me that that would positively assist me in my training as a mediator. Sure enough, it did, and I qualified in due course. My noble friend dealt with the matter admirably. The only point I want to pick up was made by the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, when he talked about compulsion being brought in by my noble friend’s amendment, particularly the compulsion in proposed new paragraphs (a)— "““he has endeavoured to promote a settlement of the proceedings in accordance with subsection (2)””—" and (b)— "““the parties to the dispute have, in his opinion, cooperated with the conciliation procedure””." I accept that, in the main, mediation works best when it is voluntary, and that the idea of forced mediation should be viewed with some care. I know that the Government are keen to promote mediation. Indeed, I remember going to see the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, when she was a Minister in what I suppose was then the Lord Chancellor’s Department or it might have been the Department for Constitutional Affairs—it certainly was not the Ministry of Justice at that stage. As a Minister, she was promoting mediation.