Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

While Ms McCaffrey is checking her papers, I would like to say that the vast bulk of these claims are managed by the State Claims Agency. This includes the legal costs that are incurred. The Department, or the Prison Service in this case, finds itself paying the relative amounts. This is common across Departments. Obviously, some cases are more complex than others. Legal fees mount up in those cases. I think there were compensation cases in relation to slopping out. They are historic at this stage. The expenses in those cases would have been incurred by the State Claims Agency. I would like to make a general point in this context. I come across this in other jobs. As Ms McCaffrey has said, an agency or Department can try to reduce the number of claims by managing the process better, but it has very little control over the legal costs that are incurred because decisions on such matters are made by the State Claims Agency in many cases. I think that might be borne in mind here.