Professor Niamh Hardiman:

As I said before, I am not an expert in corporate governance but I am sure there must be literature on directors. There is certainly a great deal of reflection on the kind of role directors can, and perhaps should, be playing. Taking seriously their role as trustees is very much part of that. I referred to the Walker review of corporate practices in financial services and the banking sector in Britain, which is developing codes of practice in this area. We are always willing to learn from systems which have lessons to teach us. Among those lessons is advice of a sort, which seems to have been adopted long ago by Canadian directors, to the effect that directors should have that combination of expertise and distance to which I have been referring.