Dr. Gabriel Scally:

Perhaps Mr. McQuillan would like to come in on this at some point. The situation is slightly worse than it would appear on the bald reading of the figures. Some things would have changed regardless, because certain factors were altered during subsequent tenders so that instead of giving a weighting, they became pass or fail issues. One would then expect the factors that were left to have an increased percentage rather than staying still or decreasing. The Deputy is quite right on that. We did not come across any reason in the documentation for why those factors were subject to such substantial reductions in weighting. One can only assume that price became a much more important factor in the process and CervicalCheck was seeking to stimulate as much competition as possible and to drive down the price. I cannot see how there could be any other explanation for it.