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Employment Bill [HL]

With leave, I wish to make a personal statement of apology to the Committee about the way in which the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, and I left our position on Clause 4 on 4 February. On reading Hansard, we realised that we had left a false impression, which should be put right before Report. My noble friend and I believe that Clause 4 is not compatible with Article 6 of the European convention, which accords to everyone the right to a fair and public hearing before an independent tribunal, which pronounces judgment publicly. That is made worse by the fact that the European Court of Human Rights, in a judgment given by 13 judges against five dissentients on 13 November 2007, in the case of DH v Czech Republic, restated the court’s interpretation of the law—especially in respect of waiver of convention rights. We intend to take that position further on Report. I have already written to the Minister. I apologise again for our failure to make that clear to the Committee in our earlier proceedings. Clause 5 [Conciliation before bringing of proceedings]: