Mr. Damien McCallion:

On the relationship, it was very challenging to get the contracts through in order to maintain the programme back through October. We are still in the process of concluding some aspects of that. As to alternative laboratories, as part of searching out capacity to deal with the backlog, we are trying to find those sorts of laboratories that would either give us capacity to address the backlog or give us contingency in the event of any other scenario arising. I will not say that that has proved easy. It is very difficult to attract that capacity, because as I mentioned earlier, as people move to HPV screening, we are finding very limited cytology capacity available.

We are constantly trying to follow leads and looking to try to secure additional capacity. That same capacity would be available to address the backlog, or in the event of a worse scenario. We are not awash with options and we are having to work very hard to try to find additional capacity, primarily to deal with the backlog.