Ms Fiona Tierney:

Advice is a very dangerous ground to get into. When we deal with this volume of applications and this number of candidates, our people are loath to give advice to anybody. They will give them facts and will try to be as helpful as they can. Sometimes they are overly helpful and get themselves in trouble. Generally, they state the person's position on the panel and the number of positions which have been filled. We do not really have an indication of what is likely to come down the pipe over the remaining period. We try to be as helpful as we can to the candidate. Many of our staff have sat on panels themselves so they know exactly what it feels like.

Appeals relate broadly to the recruitment process itself. The appeal process is set out by the Commission for Public Service Appointments in various codes of practice. At any stage of a process, candidates can contact us and ask for information. They can ask for an informal appeal. If candidates who went for an interview did not like the result, or the outcome was not what they expected, they can ask for an informal review and will receive their marks and feedback and are told how they performed. If they are not content with this, they can have a formal review, which means somebody in the office unassociated with anything to do with the competition will get the papers and the file and go through it in some detail. The person might well speak to the interview board and the candidate, if required. The person will review all of the paperwork and measure what the candidate is saying against what our standard practices are for a free, fair, open and merit-based recruitment process. The person will make an assessment and judge on this formal appeal. If it goes the candidate's way, so to speak, he or she could either go through to the next stage of the competition or be placed on a panel, whatever it might be. This is under a section 7 appeal, which relates to the candidate's own performance in a process. There is also a section 8 appeal if a candidate feels the Public Appointments Service is not holding the recruitment process in accordance with the codes of practice. The person might say it was not done on the basis of merit or it was not fair or transparent, whatever it might be. In this case, the same process applies, with the difference that if a candidate is not happy with the result of a formal appeal he or she can appeal to the Commission for Public Service Appointments, which will review the appeal and may audit all of the files and issue a report on it. I hope this answers the Deputy's question.