Mr. Matthew McGann:

When we are dealing with such an incredible concentration risk, where so much of our receipts are coming from such a small number of firms, we are of course subject to the individual performance of those firms. That is why it is very difficult to accurately forecast corporation tax receipts. Generally, when you are forecasting, the aggregate is your friend. If we are forecasting growth in the economy, some firms will be up, some firms will be down but on average, there is a driver that is working for them. However, when dealing with two, three, five or ten firms, we lose that law of large numbers working for us. That concentration risk is part of the vulnerability of our corporation tax receipts.