[Q191 to Q200]

Q191 Mr Bacon: Yes, sure, plus your safeguards that it might have been an option to place a cap on it. I wanted to ask you, just for the avoidance of doubt: you are not planning to sell off any MoD assets at the moment which will make you a multi-millionaire, are you? 
Mr Jeffrey: Certainly not.

Q192 Mr Bacon: And if you were do you think it is something we ought to know about?
Mr Jeffrey: Of course it is.

Q193 Mr Bacon: Yes, I would have thought so too. Mr Woolley, are you a chartered accountant? 
Mr Woolley: I am not.

Q194 Mr Bacon: Are you a qualified financial person of any kind? Do you have any financial qualifications?
Mr Woolley: I do not have financial qualifications.

Q195 Mr Bacon: What is your job?
Mr Woolley: I am the Finance Director of the Ministry of Defence.

Q196 Mr Bacon: Yes, that is what I thought. It is what it says here. Sir John, we have discussed this before when finance directors were called principal finance officers, and I think when I first asked the question some years ago only 23% of principal finance officers had a financial qualification. I think it has gone up significantly in the last little while. The number that sticks in my mind is 60%. Do you have any idea what the current level is? 
Sir John Bourn: I think by now it is more than 60%, but there are, of course, exceptions, as in the case of Mr Woolley.

Q197 Mr Bacon: Yes, it would appear the MoD is an exception.
Ms Diggle: I believe it is well over 90%.

Q198 Mr Bacon: It is well over 90%, so Mr Woolley is in a very small category? 
Ms Diggle: He is.

Q199 Mr Bacon: And yet he is responsible for a £32 billion budget. 
Ms Diggle: He is.

Q200 Mr Bacon: Is this not a bit of an omission on the part of the Treasury in its zeal to encourage qualifications by-
Ms Diggle: We are trying to make it a blanket requirement. We have not quite got there yet.