Mr. Bernard Gloster:

The appendices to our statement are very detailed, which reflects the examination of the detail at the time to ensure it was properly considered. That is the first point. The second point is that the level of advance purchasing during the pandemic of ventilators and other equipment was never previously seen at anywhere near that level of scale. There were controls in place in the pre-pandemic phase and they have now been reintroduced and reinstated. The risk of advance purchasing into the future is at a much lesser scale. The Comptroller and Auditor General, on page 38 or 39 of his report, has made a recommendation across all public sector spending in respect of advance purchasing. Colleagues from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform will give effect to that recommendation. We will be bound by, and fully accept, the spirit of that. Despite the nature of the emergency, there is always learning from these types of things.