Mr. Robert Watt:

To add to what the Minister has said, there are issues to do with recruitment into the public sector from the private sector. I would be happy to discuss these with the committee when I appear again. It is an issue for the top level appointments committee. It is much more complex than much of the commentary on this issue. The percentage of candidates from the private sector filling vacancies has risen over the past six to nine months compared to the previous periods. The sample size is very small so care must be taken. We are not recruiting large numbers but there has been an increase. I can discuss this with the committee at my next appearance. There are issues associated with the perception of the public sector and of how it is portrayed in the media. The issues include pay, how senior civil servants are called to account by this committee and how committee members interact with individuals. Those issues are very important when we want to attract high calibre candidates. To put it bluntly, I have had conversations with people in the private sector-----