Employment Bill [HL]

I can give the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, the assurance that he sought. Nothing being proposed will stop ACAS suggesting mediation to the parties in dispute as one of the solutions. It will not fetter that. In fact, if anything, we are after more mediation in all forms at all times. Perhaps I may bring this to a close by saying that I have listened to the noble Lords, Lord Hunt, Lord Campbell and Lord Henley, and my noble friends Lord Wedderburn and Lord Bach. I am a lawyer who never got on his feet in court but sat in smoke-filled rooms the whole time and I am now in the company of so many advocates who have so much experience of this at international level and who are an example to us all. I am reminded of what the great FE Smith said, just before he came into this place as Lord Birkenhead. One day, he was summing up, and afterwards the judge—sadly, history does not say who he was—said, ““Actually, Mr Smith, I am none the wiser””, to which FE Smith replied, ““That may well be, my lord, but you are better informed””.