Dr. Patrick Moran:

I will address the first point around what guidance or structure is in place regarding the metrics the Departments choose to report and why they do not just choose the metrics they know they will be able to meet. The structure of the performance report is based on the budgetary structure for the Department in question, as outlined in the Revised Estimates Volume. The Department's budget is broken down by programme heading first, and then by subhead. The metrics are supplied in line with that structure, so each of the programmes in its budget has certain policy goals and then those metrics have to be selected on the basis of what they tell us about the achievement of those policy goals. There is a structure around how the metrics are decided or selected and it maps back on to the various functions of the relevant Department. It is, as I said, a continuing goal of the Department to make sure all the Departments improve over time and the gap created by those variations between Departments is closed over time as well.