Commissioner Kieran FitzGerald:

It is a fair question. In terms of the files to the DPP and criminal prosecutions I understand that the number is about average. In police oversight internationally it is termed the "substantiation rate". It would probably be below average in international terms. We are conscious of that and are examining it in respect of our own investigative practices, why we do not have peer review and so on. It is below average in international terms. It is always a difficult comparison because police forces differ across jurisdictions, their powers are very different.

The Senator also asked about informant handling practices and whether they are regime-generated or sanctioned from above. Without repeating ourselves I come back to the point that there is a lacuna in oversight so it is very difficult to examine these practices. We tend to examine one or two very individual cases. In terms of an overall approach to informant management the point we are making to this committee is that there is a lacuna in oversight so it is a difficult question to answer. We did, however, find in the few cases that we examined and are examining that, culturally, the approach to informant management gives us cause for concern and that is as far as we would be prepared to go at this point.