1. The Commissioner shall be assisted by such and so many officers and staff of the Ombudsman as may be designated from time to time by the Ombudsman for the purpose of staffing the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner and any such designation may be revoked at any time.

2. (1) For the purposes of the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts 1866 to 1998, the person who stands appointed as the accounting officer for the appropriation accounts of the Office of the Ombudsman shall also be the accounting officer for the appropriation accounts of the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner.

(2) Nothing in subparagraph (1) shall be read so as to prevent the amalgamation of the appropriation accounts and vote of the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner and the Office of the Ombudsman into one appropriation account and one vote.

3. The Commissioner may delegate in writing any of the functions of the Commissioner to a person designated under paragraph 1.

4. A delegation under paragraph 3 may—

(a) relate to functions generally or specified functions of the Commissioner, and

(b) be to a specified member or specified members of the Ombudsman’s staff or to such members who are of a specified rank or grade or of a rank or grade not lower than a specified rank or grade, and may delegate different functions or classes of function to different such members or classes of members.

5. A delegation under paragraph 3 may be revoked in whole or in part or amended in writing by the Commissioner.

6. A delegation under paragraph 3 shall operate, so long as it continues in force, to confer on and vest in the person to whom any function is delegated that function so delegated.

7. References in this Act to the Commissioner shall be construed, where appropriate having regard to the context and any delegation under paragraph 3, as including references to any person to whom functions stand delegated by the delegation.]