Mr. Alex Chisholm:

As I mentioned in the introduction, we inherited an organisation from the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, which was set up in 1997. Initially, that office was staffed mainly by people who transferred there from the Department of Communications at that time. There were also people recruited from the private sector. The pay structures that were set up at the time were determined back in 1996-97. As a consequence, the people going into the organisation were assured that they would be on no worse terms and conditions than were negotiated at that time. It is obviously historical at this stage. ComReg was given its new responsibilities in 2002 under the Communications Regulation Act 2002. It was obliged to take on the people who had worked in the previous organisation, or the legacy body, again on terms that were no worse than those in effect. That structure of pay and conditions has remained in place until the present day.