Mr. David Gunning:

It is down to how the contract treats inflation. It treats it in a particular way. It is a lagging indicator for the previous year. It looks at three different scores of inflation. Three measures are taken from three different institutions to come up with an average, which is applied retrospectively. There are opportunities for the contractor to optimise and buy forward, where possible. The reality, however, in the construction sector today is that there are material shortages, whether they are Covid related or Brexit related or due to the additional costs of transport and logistics. These are all matters that are landing. While people might have the best intentions to plan ahead, there is a lot of uncertainty and turbulence in that particular sector currently.