Ms Josephine Feehily:

I referred to the audit code of practice. We have a published code of practice that sets out how an audit will be conducted and what the consequences will be.

It provides for a range of situations where there are no penalties, mitigated penalties and so on. An unprompted voluntary disclosure will never incur penalties. Technical adjustments do not incur penalties. It is a fact and there is no other way to explain this, but businesses that fall into the large cases division engage more in self-review because of their own governance rules and there are more voluntary disclosures in this sector. They are very big, which is reflected in the cash value. It is also a fact that they are the ones most likely to have the complex structures that cause valid technical adjustments. Between the two, one will find that the question of interest and penalties arises in a much lower number of cases. That is in accordance with the code of practice we have published. We apply the same measures to small businesses which are less likely to make voluntary disclosures and, in numerical terms, less likely to make early disclosures. Therefore, penalties and interest payments are more likely to arise. That is the way it is.