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Employment Bill [Lords]

The hon. Gentleman clearly does not understand industrial relations or the law. What he refers to was originally set up to ensure that when employers face a ballot for industrial action, they have good-quality information. It runs side by side with provisions such as cooling-off periods, which were introduced so that the employer and the trade unions could negotiate to try to resolve the problem and the ballot would not need to be put into action. He is wrong to tell the House that the problem is striking employees. They do not strike until after all the law on balloting has been implemented. He is wrong.