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Employment Bill [HL]

I am talking at this stage more generally about mediation over the entire civil field. I cannot recall the details of my conversation with the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, about whether she thought that it was worth taking it into employment law cases. I was responding to the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, saying that not only are the Government promoting mediation, but also the courts. The noble Lord will remember Dunnett v Railtrack, where the Court of Appeal made it clear that a failure to mediate could be taken into account when assessing damages in due course. Before the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, rises, I say that I accept that that was not an employment law case, but it was still a case where the Court of Appeal spoke of the generality of mediation. It is therefore relevant to cite it on this occasion. That is all I want to say at this stage; I have no doubt that we will come back to this matter on Report. I can see that the noble Lord, Lord Wedderburn, seems fundamentally opposed to the idea of any mediation that might undermine what ACAS already does, but my noble friend Lord Hunt said that he could not see why the two cannot run in tandem.