Mr. Peter Tyndall:

We have received a good response on the Information Commissioner side and we now have five additional posts in respect of the new jurisdiction. However, in respect of the new jurisdiction on the Ombudsman side there was not a similar increase in posts. At present we are some way short of our establishment figure. We currently have 95 staff out of an establishment figure of 107. That is a substantial gap. Prior to the increase in our jurisdiction, 107 staff might have been sufficient but there is a substantial gap between the level of resources we need to do our job and the resources we currently possess. I suspect we will also need to invest in information technology because one of the ways we can make the office more efficient, and partially address the question of archiving, is to do more of the work in an IT enabled way.

We also need investment in IT to enable us to get to the cutting edge, of which we are some way short.