Health Services (Gloucestershire)

I think that the Minister is eliding two requirements. One is the return to financial balance by the end of the financial year: it seems that by the end of March next year, provided that primary care trusts are back in balance, the first of the Minister’s criteria will be met. However, the Minister confused the issue by quoting from a letter from Trevor Jones saying that past deficits must be recovered by the end of the financial year. That is a much stricter and more stringent criterion than our PCTs have been led to expect. Are they to expect the first, or the first and the second?