To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment his Department has made of the costs and benefits of compulsory mediation in employment disputes involving small firms. (151294)

The arguments for and against compulsory mediation were assessed by Michael Gibbons in his independent review "A review of Employment Dispute Resolution in Great Britain", published in March 2007. The review concluded that:

"the Government should adopt a voluntary approach to encourage and enable more use of alternative dispute resolution techniques in order to settle disputes early".