Mr. Mark Griffin:

Those are costs that arose from the appointment of advisers by the Department to assist us in running the procurement process. It included companies such as KPMG, Analysys Mason and Mason, Hayes & Curran which supported us over the five or six year period of the procurement process, right up to the signing of the final tender. We retendered in the course of late 2019 and in 2020. We believe there will be an ongoing need for commercial and technical advice. The Deputy mentioned Analysys Mason. It operates in that bailiwick when providing services to us. Three of the companies that were with us, KPMG, Mason, Hayes & Curran, and PwC, did not make it through the new tender process. They have been replaced by William Fry and Ernst & Young, with Analysys Mason still on board.

We will continue to use some of that technical expertise over the next few years. We have a big and strong team in the Department. We have about 30 staff working on the national broadband plan, NBP. As we build up our governance capacity in the Department, we hope that the reliance on external contractors will decline over the next couple of years.