Mr. Bernard Gloster:

As to what that means, in the next two weeks, we will issue in excess of 500 whole-time equivalent positions to regional executive officers to allow agency staff to be directly converted into full-time staff. However, we will still allow those officers an agency budget because we recognise that agency staffing is needed for temping and filling shifts, although that dependency must be controlled. You cannot just keep allowing it to drift. It was drifting, understandably, when the moratorium was in place because people had to fill shifts but could not recruit. However, the position is now much more stable. When you put the paid workforce alongside the agency and the dependence on overtime, you get the three legs of the stool of the pay and numbers strategy. The next one is the agency conversion.