Mr. Kevin Meaney:

Beyond that, particularly coming out of the independent review into the cost estimation in the children's hospital, there was a very strong recommendation about central assurance processes that did look at a broad period of project delivery that went well beyond, as I said, the business assurance and value-for-money case. It also looked at the complexities of project delivery and managing risks at that very early stage of design but then, obviously, in contract management, how the project is procured and broader governance.

As part of the thought in how we will deliver centrally on that, we felt a better skill set and availability of skill sets could be available on the market. We made a commitment that as part of that, an external assurance process would be a useful aid to Departments and agencies in developing projects. Similarly, we provided a document to the committee today on some research that was done in 2019 on international approaches. We saw that a couple of other countries used that model of an external assurance beyond the public sector at key points in a project's life cycle. The Norwegian example in particular is a case in point. It is that influence or thinking that maybe an external insurance process would be a useful aid to Departments and agencies.