Mr. Robert Watt:

In recent years, the bodies have mainly been ETBs and various higher education bodies, for example, universities. A variety of issues in this regard are listed in various reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General. There was a change of structure, from VECs to ETBs. The Deputy will be aware of all that history. That impacted upon their ability to prepare their accounts on time. As for how convinced one is of those arguments, I will leave it there.

The issue is that compliance has improved because it has been highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General and this committee, and we followed it up through various actions and circulars. We published Circular 25/2017: Requirements for Appropriation Accounts 2017, which puts an onus on Departments to set out why particular bodies may not have complied with timeframes. The purpose of this is to throw a light on the matter. In most cases, there is an element of inertia. If one highlights that, one can address the problem and put pressure on boards and CEOs to ensure they are complying.

Just to say, and speaking privately here, this would not be tolerated-----