Mr. David Moloney:

What I said earlier is probably relevant in this context. With the development of a mobility policy for all grades between clerical officer and assistant secretary, we would like that to be the mechanism within the Civil Service that is used for permanent assignments because we think that is much more open, transparent and clearer. We would like secondments to be predominantly temporary, although we recognise there is a great variety of secondments and they have different characteristics, and we set out some exceptions in the guidance. The difference between seconding somebody and permanently moving somebody is sometimes to do with the different terms and conditions that can occur. For example, we only have a mobility policy for the general grade civil servants. We do not yet have a mobility policy for the professional and technical grades. For particular areas of specialism, there would be worries for people involved about how much they carried their existing terms and conditions with them but that is all there to be worked through and we are working through it for the technical professional grades for the Civil Service. Certainly, those lessons can be taken on board in our review and in how we might progress that for the wider public sector.