Mr. Robert Watt:

I do not think it was blocked. At the time, there was not support for the implementation of a national patient record in one go. It was decided that a more gradual incremental approach would de-risk the project, we would establish new units and there would be interoperability between the different elements. I do not think it is fair to say it was blocked. Rather, a decision was made not to go ahead with the national approach, given our legitimate concerns around large-scale IT projects and the history of overruns, delays and non-delivery. Mr. Thompson will probably know what the indicative cost was at the time. An eye-watering number was suggested.