Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the cost to employers of disciplinary and grievance hearings taking place (a) with a worker's companion and (b) without a worker's companion.

Under existing legislation, we would not expect to see a difference in cost to the employer between a disciplinary or grievance hearing where the worker has a companion or does not have a companion. If the worker were to be accompanied by a trade union representative, the worker would pay for this through their trade union membership.