7 To obtain a complete view from the public sector perspective of the steps the Treasury took to meet its objectives, we interviewed senior Treasury staff overseeing work on Northern Rock, and the leaders of the stabilisation, resolution and recovery teams; representatives of the other Tripartite Authorities, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, and representatives of Goldman Sachs and Slaughter & May, the Tripartite Authorities' financial and external legal advisers. We also interviewed Ernst & Young as well as the former Chairman of Northern Rock, Bryan Sanderson, and The Blackstone Group in their role as advisers to the company.
8 We sought to ascertain whether the Treasury had prepared for a bank getting into difficulty, and had the capacity and skills to deal with such a situation. We also sought to ascertain what lessons the Tripartite Authorities had learnt from scenario testing, as well as the lessons learnt from handling the Northern Rock case.
9 We interviewed the current Chief Executive of Northern Rock and several potential purchasers of the company to obtain their views on the quality of the sale process, and their view on the lessons the Treasury should learn from handling the Northern Rock case.