CONFIDENTIAL
13.
Secondly, the Assessment Office was a body without
precedent. While maintaining our independence, we have
closely observed it at work, watching and
listening to its members as they discharged their functions.
We have also shared in their experience of the public response
to the draft agreement, and of the local reactions to the
We present in our
consultation and assessment tasks.
Conclusions our considered judgment
on the way in which
the Assessment Office has discharged its terms of reference;
but we would like to pay tribute here to the quality of
the staff of the Office, and to the integrity and
conscientiousness with which the Commissioner and all his
colleagues have done their job.
CONCLUSIONS
14.
We wish to record first that we are fully satisfied
that the Assessment Office has performed its duties impartially -
in the manner in which it had discharged its terms of reference
as a whole, and in the balanced way in which it has assessed
the views of those who are unwilling, as well as of those
who are willing, to accept the draft agreement.
15.
Paragraph 5 (a) explained that the proper discharge
of the Assessment Office's duties must largely depend upon