Ms Christine Tacon:

Getting suppliers to talk to me has been the biggest issue.

When I was going through the interview process for the role I asked if they were looking for someone who would roll their sleeves up and get involved or were they looking for a retired judge. They answered that they did not know. I have often said that if a retired judge had been appointed he or she would have sat in an office wondering what on earth he or she had been appointed for because suppliers will not come forward with information or give evidence and are concerned that such information will get back to the retailer even if one has a statutory duty of confidentiality. Therefore, a lot of my role has been about going to suppliers, making myself available, having private one-to-one meetings with them and building up a picture. Very often, when they start saying to me a certain retailer has asked me for this, I ask which retailer. I mean one will see they are worried and I ask, "Is it so-and-so?" One can then see how relieved they are to realise that I have already heard about it and they start talking, which really helps. I have my finger on the pulse to hear about these things and I am taking things forward without written evidence. I am just getting the stories together and realising that this is something I am now going to take up with a retailer or mention to every retailer.

Yes, I get an awful lot more cases now. I and my office have built up enough trust with people so they know they can tell us stuff. We probably get three or four things into the office every week. Very often, they will be, sort of, talking about what is reasonable notice of a de-listing but we do not give them answers and say, "Here is the guidance, here are the things that one should consider and one might like to read the co-op investigation". We cannot give them an answer because the case might come to me to arbitrate. On the whole, we point people in the right direction. The survey gives me another 1,500 responses. These things are so important because we can get information from people. The main thing I want to say to people is that there is safety in numbers. I will not take something forward that I have just heard from one person. Instead, I will wait until I have heard from more people or I will actively ask, perhaps, a trade association whether any of its members have experienced such and such.