Derek McDowell (Labour)

Perhaps my confusion arises out of the fact that I do not totally understand the distinction between section 23 and section 24. No doubt we will come to that in due course. Since the funding mechanism is linked to it maybe the Minister of State could help me at this stage.

As I read it, section 23 allows the supervisory authority to determine whether the appropriate procedures have been gone through or whether the procedures of a particular body are right, whereas section 24 allows the investigation of a particular case where a complaint is made specifically to the supervisory authority. The distinction between the two is not clear cut and there is not a case for a different funding mechanism.