I welcome the minister's response and his letter, although I note that the controller of audit has said that there are some arrangements that give cause for concern in respect of the value for money of the transfer. Is the minister aware that one of the consequences of externalisation has been the adoption by Dumfries and Galloway Council of a three-for-one policy, whereby three elderly people in private nursing homes have to die before one elderly person is allowed into a private nursing home, and that that has led to bed-blocking, to the enormous cost of the local health service?