11. The Accounting Officer told us that he had been less forthcoming than he might have been at the Committee's hearing on 24 June 2002 because some of the matters under consideration were commercially confidential. Evidence supplied at the Committee's hearings needs to be accurate and complete. Where a department feels that it cannot put evidence in the public domain on the grounds of commercial confidentiality, it should make the position clear so that the Committee can consider whether to take evidence in closed session.