Mr. Richard Corbridge:

I will answer all of the questions and Ms Goff may add clinical patient focus. The negotiations between the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Health on the use of PPS numbers and sharing information have reached the point where there is a memorandum of understanding between the two Departments. Once this is finalised and agreed we can begin to use the individual health identifier. The length of time between the Act and going live is, to some degree, to do with investment and being able to work out how to begin the implementation. We started the technology part of this 18 months ago. To do this in 18 months is considered by other jurisdictions as quite a significant achievement. It has taken a long time to work from the Act to understand how to implement what we have done, but the solution has been put in place in 18 months and brings about a great change.