I think it's a very real problem and it certainly hasn't been resolved. In the context of pressure across every single UK nation and the national health service in winter, it's an exacerbation of that because some of the people we're talking about work at the front of the hospital system together with people who work in general practice as well, whether in in-hours or out-of-hours. So it affects the whole system and there are other groups of staff, clinical and non-clinical, affected by the same issue.

So, the choice made in England, I would say that it was pretty extraordinary to do so in the middle of an election campaign and to do so without any contact with the other Governments within the UK as well. I don't think that was particularly well reflected in the way that lots of healthcare staff, regardless of their views on how to vote, felt about that choice being made, and there is a real need to go back to look at the direct impact. The impact upon staff on the cliff edge that some face is potentially having in-year bills that are the same or more than their rates of pay or significant sums of money that they just haven't provided for and can't plan for, and you couldn't reasonably expect them to do so as well.

There's also a challenge about the long-term effects of the pension scheme. If you get your higher earners and higher contributors coming out of that scheme and not making contributions, that affects everyone who's in the scheme. But more than that, these are UK rules, and they're UK rules designed and delivered by the UK Treasury—they affect all of us. And I certainly hope that, in the UK budget coming up within the next coming months, they resolve the problem that they have created. Because it will cost more money to resolve it  otherwise, because we'll do that in the sense that the arrangement we've already had to work around now; we'll do that by paying more for activity, probably in the independent sector, to recover activity that won't take place within the national health service. But, more than that, we are bleeding away the goodwill of staff who are directly affected, and some of those staff who come and work additional hours within the national health service, to undertake waiting list initiatives in every one of the four UK countries, may decide not to come back, and we may find that we need to recruit, train and retain even more of those staff in the future, with even more cost to the taxpayer and the national health service to do so.

I think it is a self-defeating measure. I've written or I'll shortly be writing again, and I'll happily make Members aware of that when I do, to the UK Government asking them to, again, have an attack of common sense, to look again at the rules, and to do the right thing by the national health service, because all of us will pay if they don't do so, and it's literally affecting thousands and thousands of episodes of patient treatment and care. That has to be the wrong choice to make, and I certainly hope that the UK Government do the right thing and then they can all argue about who should take credit for it afterwards.