Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Most of the demand for external investigation is because when people make a specific type of complaint, if it is of a serious level or when it is a complex HR matter or a protected disclosure, the level of confidence, as I am sure the Deputy knows, that people express in organisations to investigate or conduct investigations themselves is a feature of the narrative of the last number of years. The agency would, therefore, make a decision from time to time to move to an external investigation to give the greatest level of assurance possible and to give the greatest level of fairness as possible, indeed. My preference is to try to come back to inhouse capacity as much as possible. I have this month just established a new special investigations unit with two legally trained people who, from January, will take over a significant portion of that. There will still be some external requirement in terms of complaints at a certain level but I would hope to reduce that. External investigation covers everything from HR and protected disclosures to serious complaints from members of the public.