Mr. Robert Watt:

There are two issues here. It is not entirely clear what the counterfactual would have been if we had adopted a lump sum contract. It is not clear that the hospital would have been cheaper. It might have taken us longer to get to the price and it would not have been described as an overrun versus the position set out at phase 1. The counterfactual is not clear. That is an important issue. Nobody can say, and we are not convinced, that a different approach would have necessarily yielded a different result. A different approach would have ensured the project did not evolve as it has done, with elements of the final cost being characterised as an overrun. In terms of the implementation of the two-stage process, on this occasion, in my view, there were mistakes with it. There are two issues. First, to commit to significant spending on preliminary works and say that the Government could at a future date opt out when it gets to the maximum price is not credible.