Government saves millions by increasing ADR fivefold

MEDIATION PLEDGE: 'persuasive pressure' on public sector

Use of mediation within government has increased at least fivefold from last year, Lord Chancellor's Department minister Baroness Scotland told the House of Lords last week.

Asked about government progress on its mediation pledge by Lord Hurd of Westwell - president of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution - Baroness Scotland said that since March 2002, the government had used mediation in 255 instances, whereas in the year from April 2001 to March 2002 the figure was 49.

Those 49 cases saved the government 2.5 million, she said, and she confirmed that the LCD would publish a report tracking the progress of government mediation in April.

Lord Hurd asked Baroness Scotland and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to bring 'strong persuasive pressures' on the public sector to mediate - particularly the Ministry of Defence and the National Health Service.

Baroness Scotland said the government had achieved 'success stories' in mediation, such as a Home Office saving of 500,000 achieved by mediating a dispute last year, and the Ministry of Defence settling with Kenyan tribes over their claim relating to explosives left on their land by the British army.

Baroness Buscombe, the Tory legal affairs spokeswoman, and her Liberal Democrat counterpart Lord Goodhart, both called on Baroness Scotland to increase mediation of government disputes.

She replied that there was a full understanding of the benefits of mediation - and a desire to mediate 'whenever possible' - in the National Health Service, and that the government hopes that local authorities will also seek to take advantage of alternative dispute resolution.

Jeremy Fleming