Professor Nick Hardwick:

What is frustrating about this is that first of all, we are not aware of any individual who could be said to be criticised in the report but who has not had an opportunity to respond to it. If there is, we would be happy to consider that. It is very frustrating because after we submitted the first draft of the report we had two lengthy meetings that practically lasted a full day each, first with Mr. Pat Rooney and Professor Ursula Kilkelly and then with Professor Kilkelly alone. At no point did they say to us that our procedure was flawed and we needed to do X, Y or Z to make this a fair process. They did not say that to us. We got very detailed comments back from them, which were largely about post-review events, and we sent our reply. At no point did they then say that we had not given X or Y a chance to reply. It was only months later that this issue arose. I should also say that we have kept every bit of correspondence. We are happy to make any of it available to the committee if there is some doubt about what we are saying.