(Schedule 2, para 1(1) of the Continuity Act) 25 - Where ESS may prepare an improvement report with respect to the failure of two or more public authorities if it “considers that the combined effect of two or more public authorities exercising their functions (including regulatory functions) in the same or a similar way constitutes a systemic failure by those authorities”. (Section 26(2) of the Continuity Act, note that at section 26(1) there is no requirement to identify a systemic failing with respect to an improvement report covering a single public authority.)