Mr. Brian McHugh:

Insofar as we are aware, the way it works internationally is that it is always the competition body that will screen for bid rigging. We are not aware of any procurement agency that has been tasked with it. Access to the data is required to do it, which would be possible under the legislation we talked about. If we could access the data, it would be possible to start screening to look for patterns. As was mentioned in the opening statement and by Ms Stewart, it is not about one tender. The behaviour of these companies needs to be looked at in a particular market over a number of tenders and over a number of years. For example, one of the things that might be looked for is where there is market sharing, that is, where I will never go into your market and you will never go into my market. We agree to share our markets. That can be looked at in tenders in different markets over a number of years to see whether it is a pattern. That is one example. In order to do that, we would need access to the data. We largely have the tools and the skill set in-house. We are ready to do this. We work closely with our international colleagues who are doing this. They are looking at different techniques and different patterns and they can look back at cartels they have uncovered to see what the patterns were in those bidding processes. They can learn from that and reverse-engineer what the behaviour might look like. We are very much part of a strong European community so we can learn from one another, but the first step is to get access to the data.