10.45 passives of reporting verbs

If you want to say what is said, thought, or discovered by a group of people, you can use 'it' as the subject of the passive form of a reporting verb, followed by a 'that'-clause.

• It was agreed that the transaction should be kept secret.
• It was felt that there had been some duplication of effort.
• It was found that no cases of hypothermia had been recorded.

For a list of verbs that can be used in this way, see paragraph 7.65.