Ms Laverne McGuinness:

The first situation arose in 2009 and predated the revised service level arrangement. This was further strengthened in 2010 and 2011, particularly in terms of compliance with public pay policy. We are not strengthening the service level arrangement again, but we are putting in place a new arrangement involving compliance statements signed by agencies' boards. A chairman and director must state that their agency is fully compliant or, if it is not, where that failure in compliance has occurred and how it will be addressed. In this regard, a meeting has been arranged with the chairmen of all section 38 agencies for tomorrow evening. This issue will form part of the discussion, as will additional enhanced corporate governance arrangements for boards, the various committees that should be in place - the CRC already has some such committees - and the independence of some of the boards.