Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

From the data we have been able to gather across our entire system despite the absence of a single national financial procurement system - something I can update the committee on later - we accept that the sample may well be representative.

Previous years' samples showed a much lower level of non-compliance in some cases. We would say this would have flattered the organisation. There is a co-ordinated central national approach. I mentioned the infrastructure piece, including the staff, and the push to get more contracts in place. The third piece is to support compliance with those contracts. We have built a small compliance improvement team whose aim is to assist each of our service divisions - our nine big community health care organisations and seven hospital groups - to review their current purchasing and contracting arrangements and existing contracts, see whether they can be brought into partial or full compliance, and ensure that we flesh out fully the sourcing plan for the coming years.