Mr. John McKeon:

We did it over two phases. We started off looking at four areas of the country where there was not a local employment service. We ran a competition and, in three of the areas, they were won by community and voluntary groups, and in one area it was won by a commercial group. We got the feedback from that process, and we changed the tendering for the second round. There are issues about the value of reference contracts; the length of time people had to respond; the amount of money which was paid in upfront fees as opposed performance fees and so on. We took all that feedback on board and we changed the tendering process. As a consequence of that, we moved and we were able to award contracts. All of the contracts in the second phase went to community and voluntary groups. We went from 21 areas to 17, so there is some consolidation within the groups, and we went from having job clubs and local employment services to having an integrated service in each area. Overall, the feedback-----