Ms Maria Graham:

When we knew that that was the fixed cost at the outcome of the procurement, we still asked for clarification on whether costs would be committed or whether there would be flexibility in the contract if it emerged subsequently that some resources from the local government sector could be used. That was our understanding. We understood those to be the ceilings on the costs. If, for example, local authority resources or skills appeared subsequently, it was a question of not having to draw down the full amount of the contract. That was our understanding. We interpreted it as a ceiling on the costs.

As the Secretary General said, we monitored the expenditure against the overall classes of expenditure on an ongoing basis, so at any point in time we would not have known the figure in question. At the end of December 2013 we would have been due to get a report which would have told us the overall expenditure, but the expenditure of €50 million out of the €100 million would not have been known. The overall magnitude of the expenditure would have been known.