Mr. Mervyn Taylor:

Generally, I would agree, as a former CEO of a national advocacy service for people with disabilities. The numbers of people in the field are small. The national advocacy service would probably have 60 to 80. We have about 60 staff and they are not all advocates. We are dealing with a relatively small number of people. There was a position in the past where people were calling themselves advocates - and they still are - and entering into hospitals. We have had situations where we have had to interact with hospital management about that. Self-appointed advocates are the issue of concern.

Many safeguarding teams interact effectively and leave much complex work in the financial area to Sage Advocacy. I want to emphasise the skills that exist in the national advocacy service for older people, which is Sage, and others. There are different horses for different courses and we want regulation because there are far too many people out there trying to appoint themselves as advocates.