Mr. Tom Hayes:

I know we are not allowed to mention names but I think that is to do with individuals. The European works council involved, ironically, is the British Council. Anybody who knows anything knows the British Council is charged with promoting British culture, theatre and arts throughout the world. It has a European works council because it is also the biggest employer of teachers of English in the world. For example, it has 500 or 600 teachers of English in Spain, 400 or 500 in Italy and so on. Of course, the British Council, as an arm of the British Government, has had to move its European works council to Ireland because of Brexit and it cannot stay in England. Anybody who knows any Graham Greene novels will know the British Council was also a front for many British spies but that is another day's work.

The complaint is about confidentiality. The EWC complains that certain information it asked for is not being given because the management has said the information is sensitive and confidential and cannot be shared. The EWC, as I understand it, wrote to the Minister last December requesting him to appoint an arbitrator to hear this dispute. As I understand it, and I am happy to stand corrected if wrong, the Minister still had not responded to the request as of last week. The reason for not responding is that he cannot appoint an arbitrator because the statutory instruments that would allow him to appoint an arbitrator were never made. In that instance, we have an EWC waiting six months for the Minister to respond to a request for the appointment of an arbitrator. It is one concrete example of where we are.