With a view to helping a person (“the person aggrieved”) who considers he may have been discriminated against or subjected to harassment in contravention of this Act to decide whether to institute proceedings and, if he does so, to formulate and present his case in the most effective manner, the Secretary of State shall by order prescribe—
(a) forms by which the person aggrieved may question the respondent on his reasons for doing any relevant act, or on any other matter which is or may be relevant;
(b) forms by which the respondent may if he so wishes reply to any questions.
Where the person aggrieved questions the respondent (whether in accordance with an order under subsection (1) or not)—
(a) the question, and any reply by the respondent (whether in accordance with such an order or not) shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be admissible as evidence in the proceedings;
(b) if it appears to the court or tribunal that the respondent deliberately, and without reasonable excuse, omitted to reply within the period applicable under subsection (2A) or that his reply is evasive or equivocal, the court or tribunal may draw any inference from that fact that it considers it just and equitable to draw, including an inference that he committed an unlawful act.
The period applicable for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) is—
(a) eight weeks beginning with the day when the question was served on the respondent, if the question relates to discrimination under—
(i) any provision of Part 2,
(ia) section 29, 30 or 31, except in so far as it relates to an excluded matter,
(ii) section 35A or 35B, or
(iii) any other provision of Part 3, so far as it applies to vocational training;
(b) a reasonable period, as regards any other question.
The Secretary of State may by order—
(a) prescribe the period within which questions must be duly served in order to be admissible under subsection (2)(a), and
(b) prescribe the manner in which a question, and any reply by the respondent, may be duly served.
Rules may enable the court entertaining a claim under section 66 to determine, before the date fixed for the hearing of the claim, whether a question or reply is admissible under this section or not.
This section is without prejudice to any other enactment or rule of law regulating interlocutory and preliminary matters in proceedings before a county court, sheriff court or employment tribunal, and has effect subject to any enactment or rule of law regulating the admissibility of evidence in such proceedings.
In this section “respondent” includes a prospective respondent and “rules”—
(a) in relation to county court proceedings, means county court rules;
(b) in relation to sheriff court proceedings, means sheriff court rules.