Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I would not say conversations have or have not taken place. The Secretary General and I probably talk to each other every day, certainly in recent weeks and I speak to the Minister. There are many conversations, but once the primary budget announcement is made and we have the figure, I have to start to anticipate, prepare and plan for the year. In that context, I have been open in saying there is one missing variable, which is the Supplementary Revised Estimate, which will inform the scale of the challenge next year. Even with that, we will be in a financially pressured situation next year, which will result in an element of deficit no matter how good I am at control. However, I do not plan to deal with that deficit by cutting services.