Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I will, but for the avoidance of doubt, the post was advertised twice through the Public Appointments Service in an open and transparent manner, in the way all senior public jobs are, and it was not possible to fill it.

In this instance, while the figure is as the Chairman quoted, it is important to stress that this is not an employee and, therefore, there are not on-costs attracting on top of that. They are not permanent. They are here entirely at our discretion. It is far from ideal but the alternative, in a real operational space that we exist in sometimes, is either we have to accept an inordinate and unacceptable risk to the quality and safety of our services or we have to take such steps as are available to us to plug those gaps. I would much prefer never to rely on any agency staff anywhere in the health system but the reality is that we do depend upon them, at times and in certain circumstances. I am happy to provide the Chairman with a full report.