In response to a question asking Oxburgh about criticisms that the report – all five of pages of it – appeared “rushed and superficial”, Oxburgh described how the panel had patiently stayed in Norwich to see the project through. Oxburgh (my approximate transcript at about 10:51 time on program):
After we had done all the interviewing and talking and scrutiny, we kept the panel together in Norwich while the report was written and while it went through a series of drafts. So we did not go through the endless iterative procedures with which your committee must be familiar, circulating reports, getting comments here, getting them back, balancing them with someone’s opposing comments. We did it all around the table, that probably saved six weeks over normal procedures.
Q: we all appreciate . can I just clarify this point – you said that all the committee members stayed in Norwich.
Oxburgh – [unintelligible]
Q – OK. Does that mean that they were spending all their time on this report over that 2 week period?
Oxburgh – Not over 2 weeks. Probably over 4 days, 5 days something like that. They’d done a lot beforehand.
Q- How much time did each individual spend working on this report?
Oxburgh – Gosh, you mean altogether, not just in Norwich,
Q- You said that it had happened over a 3 week period but most of the time was spent in Norwich.
Oxburgh – People had done an immense amount of work before, one of the most important things. They had a really tough work schedule before they arrived. Then in Norwich, when they were there, they worked continuously. Total number of person-days spent on this was around 15. Something like that. It was… does that answer your question?
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