Ms Fiona Tierney:

The moratorium from which we are just emerging effectively meant that no appointments were being made from any panels. Although I was not working in the Public Appointments Service at the time, there were quite a number of panels created from competitions back in 2008 and early 2009 from which very few appointments were made because no positions were coming up to be filled. This is a good example to give the committee some knowledge of how it might work. Imagining that a competition was held in 2008 and appointments made in 2009 under whatever sanctions were still in place, and then that no further appointments were made until 2013 or 2014 when the moratorium was eased, there would not have been further appointments made from that panel. It would never have been closed but a new competition would have superseded it. For example, in almost every grade in the Civil Service there has been an open competition over the past 12 or 18 months from which panels have been created. Many new people might have expressed an interest and wanted to compete but might not have had the time or opportunity to do so back in 2008.