Everton midfielder Ross Barkley will have to add to his game if he is to reach his potential at a top-four club, says former Toffees player Leon Osman.

Everton boss Ronald Koeman says Barkley is "looking for a new challenge" - and Tottenham are reportedly interested in signing the 23-year-old.
"He is certainly going to get into top teams in the league," said Osman.
"But he's not got the all-round game yet that managers of these top four or six clubs want to see."
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, he added: "Moments of brilliance he shows are what clubs strive for. That's why he's constantly linked with top clubs. Not every player can produce those moments."
Osman believes the timing of Barkley's decision is odd in a summer during which Everton have spent heavily on 12 new recruits.
He was not part of the squad for Thursday's Europa League qualifier win over MFK Ruzomberok, and on Friday he was linked with a move to Premier League champions Chelsea.
"Ross Barkley has got a big decision to make," Osman added. "Now it's up to Koeman to plan for time without him.
"He has to plan for the club to move forward and he's been doing a good job so far."
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Barkley, who joined Everton aged 11, scored six goals in 39 appearances as Koeman's side finished seventh in the Premier League last season.
He featured in 36 of their 38 league games but his future was a regular topic of conversation at Koeman's news conferences during the second half of the campaign as the England international failed to agree an extension to his contract, which expires in June 2018.
Spurs, who are yet to make a signing this summer, have been linked with him and former Arsenal defender Matthew Upson believes a move could improve Barkley's game.
"I think Ross Barkley has the potential to be a top four player," he told 5 live. "That's the key. If he went to Tottenham, Mauricio Pochettino could give him things he needs to be that top-four player.
"Some of the things you see in him at times, you think if you could hammer things into him, you could have a top player."
Osman believes Everton's summer signings, including midfielder Davy Klaassen from Ajax, striker Wayne Rooney from Manchester United and defender Michael Keane from Burnley, mean a top-six finish should be a minimum goal.
Manchester United finished eight points clear of Koeman's side in sixth last season, while their Merseyside rivals Liverpool were a further seven points better off in fourth.
Asked if Everton could finish above Jurgen Klopp's side in the 2017-18 campaign, Osman said: "Absolutely. The divide isn't that big with regard to the league.
"I  think Everton seem to be not capable of beating Liverpool enough times when it's head to head. But over the course of the season points-wise there isn't much in it.
"A top six and improving is the aim and any kind of silverware. Everton have waited a long time. They say you get the first one and more will follow. Everton are desperate for that at the moment."


Ontario's Marineland adventure park is facing six new charges animal cruelty charges.

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) laid the new charges against the tourist attraction in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
In November, the animal welfare agency laid five similar charges against Marineland.
The latest charges relate to elk, red deer, and fallow deer being kept at the amusement park and zoo.
The charges include permitting an animal to be in distress and for failing to provide proper standards of care for the animals in question.
The park has an estimated 650 elk and deer on site.
Last year, the OSPCA cited the adventure park for failing to provide appropriate care for a peacock, guinea hens and American black bears, including not providing enough food and water for the bears being kept at there.
The animal welfare agency's deputy chief, Jennifer Bluhm, said the investigation, which is ongoing, stems from a complaint received by the general public.
No animals have been removed from the park.
Marineland is due in court on 26 January to face the 11 animal cruelty charges. The maximum penalty for these charges include a $60,000 (US$45,300/Â£37,300) fine and two years in jail.
In a statement, Marineland said it "looks forward to the OSPCA laying out their case in court, where facts matter and there is an objective measure of reality that has not been seen in the basis of their charges or the supporting documentation".
The company also expressed concerns it was being targeted by "a band of discredited" animal rights activists.


A newly discovered species of gecko has tearaway skin that leaves predators with nothing but a mouthful of scales when attacked.

Many lizards can detach their tails when attacked, but fish-scale geckos have large scales that tear away with ease.
The new species is a master of this art, say scientists, having the largest scales of any known gecko.
The reptile, named Geckolepis megalepis, is described in PeerJ.
The skin of fish-scale geckos is specially adapted to tearing. The large scales are attached only by a relatively narrow region that tears with ease.
In addition, beneath the scales there is a pre-formed splitting zone within the skin itself.
Although several other geckos are able to lose their skin like this if they are grasped firmly, fish-scale geckos are able to do so actively - and at the slightest touch.
They can also grow them back scar-free in a matter of weeks, while other geckos might take a long time to regenerate their scales.
But Geckolepis megalepis is remarkable for the huge size of its scales. The researchers hypothesise that larger scales tear more easily than smaller ones, because of their greater surface area relative to the attachment area, and larger friction surface.
"What's really remarkable though is that these scales - which are really dense and may even be bony, and must be quite energetically costly to produce - and the skin beneath them tear away with such ease, and can be regenerated quickly and without a scar," said lead author Mark Scherz, from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
The new species was discovered in the Tsingy cave formations of northern Madagascar.


Early on a Saturday morning I found myself in the basement of a hotel in the company of 12 strangers.

The air conditioning was on at full blast; the atmosphere between us was also rather chilly.
This was our "sentence" for committing a minor motoring offence - and none of us wanted to be there.
We were on a driver awareness course called What's Driving Us?
It was that, or accept a Â£100 fine and three penalty points. No contest, really.
Over the next three hours there were discussions, presentations and role-play.
None of us embraced it with any great enthusiasm - we just wanted to "tick the box" and let the weekend begin.
My crime?
I had jumped a red light driving up the A10 in north London and was spotted by a CCTV camera.
The road ahead of me had been clear - but there was no excuse for what I had done and no point challenging the evidence.
A handful on the course had committed a red light offence like me, another group had been caught with a mobile phone, one man had driven too close to another car and a couple of others had ignored road signs.
At the start of the session, as we confessed our sins, it felt as though the punishment was a good fit for the crime: the course cost marginally less than the fine but with travel costs added was probably about the same, and we would spend some time getting useful motoring tips with warnings about bad driving ringing in our ears.
Now, after it's all over, I see it as a wasted opportunity. It was all rather tepid.
Whereas our two instructors had the right mix of authority, knowledge and humour, the course materials were unimaginative and unconvincing.
Why weren't we shown footage of the effects of driving through red lights, using a mobile and ignoring road signs? Couldn't we have heard from the victim of a car crash about the impact on them? Where was the account of a motoring offender who had learned the error of their ways?
It was a chance to ram home the ramifications of careless driving and it was missed.
What did I learn instead? Don't get caught.
Now, when the traffic light turns from green to orange I'm more likely to apply the brakes than keep my foot on the gas.
Perhaps that's not a bad lesson to learn - but it's not what it should be, and I can't guarantee it'll have a lasting effect.
That driver awareness seminar should have stuck in my memory like the image of a blackened lung tissue from the anti-smoking session I went to at school some 35 years ago.
My fellow motorists on the driving course may have felt differently, but I didn't sense it had been a driving-altering experience for them either as they rushed out of that windowless meeting room at the end of the morning.
In fact, more widely, there appears to be a dearth of reliable evidence about the impact of driver awareness and speed reduction programmes.
Over the past decade, they have grown to become a major component of the regime for dealing with motoring offences since they were launched as an alternative to prosecution in 2006.
The vast majority of courses across the UK are overseen on behalf of the police by the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS): 1.4 million people attended courses last year - treble the number in 2010, and far greater than the overall number of prosecutions for motoring offences (591,000 in England and Wales in 2014).
Most of those who went on courses, 1.2 million, took part in speed awareness training. More than 123,000 people attended the course that I completed - in 2011 it didn't even exist.
NDORS says the schemes it runs are designed by a group of police officers, behavioural change psychologists, transport academics and road safety experts.  It says they are based on the latest research, have been evaluated and are "fit for purpose".  But I was uncertain about the evidence on its website.
The biggest study it cites, published by the Department for Transport in 2005, compared those who had attended courses with those who hadn't. It involved a questionnaire and an on-road assessment by a driving instructor six and 12 months later.
The study suggested there had been a "modest improvement towards safe driving" but said it did not find "reliable evidence that this translates into improved driving performance on the road".  The longer-term effects of the courses weren't measured.
A more recent evaluation, conducted in 2011 for ACPO, which was then the chief police officers' association, indicated there were "positive changes in attitudes" among motorists who had been on a speed awareness course.
Yet, the research relied on comparing attendees' attitudes to driving before, immediately after the course and three months later.  The response rate at the three-month point was only 31%.
NDORS claims it has received "many accolades" for its courses. In 2012 it won the Prince Michael International Road Safety premier award.
The organisation says: "We are not naive enough to think that the courses will stop all negative driving behaviour for all attendees, so our desired outcome is to try and re-educate as many as possible."
It boasts that an impressive "98% of first-time offenders do not reoffend over a five-year period".
However, it's not clear where those figures come from - and there is no control group, of drivers who received different sanctions for the same misdemeanours, to make the data meaningful.
Even NDORS acknowledges it doesn't know how the courses compare with the effect of receiving penalty points, as most first-time offenders who take part in driver or speed awareness schemes would otherwise have had three points added to their licence.
The Transport Research Laboratory, which says it provides "independent and impartial world-class research, consultancy, testing and certification for all aspects of transport", pointed me towards a major project carried out last year for Thames Valley Police and the Hampshire Constabulary into the effectiveness of a range of roads policing strategies.
At 175 pages, it is certainly the most comprehensive study I have come across, yet it identified "a number of gaps in the evidence", saying the impact of the National Speed Awareness Course is "broadly unknown" in terms of its effect on repeat speed offences and future collisions.
In fact, the project found that the impact for "most forms of penalty" was not known.
As for using mobile phones while driving, for which the government is consulting on raising the fine from Â£100 to Â£150 and the penalty points from three to four for non-HGV drivers, there is even less information about what works.
The Department for Transport (DfT) says in its consultation document that the "primary objective" of the proposed changes is to "encourage first-time offenders to opt for remedial training courses where they are offered as an alternative" to points and a fine.
Given that mobile phone use is seen as a growing problem, with some 29,700 fixed penalty notices in England and Wales in 2014, it seems surprising that legal reforms are being contemplated without firm evidence that the courses they want people to take act as a deterrent.
Indeed, officials appear to accept that there needs to be an improvement in the evidence base supporting the overall use of motoring courses.
A DfT spokesperson says although Britain has some of the "safest roads in the world" it can "always do more".
"An evaluation of speed awareness courses is being carried out for us and the Road Safety Trust, and will be published in due course," the spokesperson says.
As part of the study, Ipsos Mori will examine the impact of schemes on reoffending and reconviction rates, as well as collisions.
While the Ministry of Justice compiles exhaustive data on reoffending rates after community sentences and imprisonment for all types of offences, a comprehensive review of the impact of motoring courses is certainly long overdue.
In the meantime, I'll do my best to ensure that I wait till the light goes green and never again have to spend a Saturday morning facing up to my bad driving habits.


Bangladesh's highest court has upheld the death sentence for Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the country's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Nizami was appealing against last year's conviction for war crimes committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
The 72-year-old is accused of helping the Pakistani army identify and kill pro-independence activists.
He was convicted on charges including genocide, murder, torture and rape.
Many of those killed during the nine-month Bangladeshi war of secession were teachers, engineers and journalists.
A war crimes tribunal - looking into abuses during the war - was set up in 2010, but critics have accused the government of using it to target political opponents.
Nizami, who served as a minister in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government from 2001-2006, is one of the most important figures to have been found guilty.
He is expected to be executed in the coming months unless he requests a review of the Supreme Court verdict, or is granted clemency by the president - which analysts say is unlikely.


Universities in England should have no upper limit on tuition fees, Lord Browne's review is set to recommend.

But government support will only be guaranteed up to a maximum of £7,000 per year - which is likely to make this the upper fee for most degree courses.
This would mean more than doubling the current tuition fee of £3,290.
The National Union of Students said students and their families would treat such plans for higher fees with "contempt".
NUS president Aaron Porter suggested that such a radical recommendation would be used as a scare tactic - so that the government could then deliver a more moderate increase.
The recommendations would mean a three-year degree typically costing students £21,000 or more - with many also likely to face a higher rate of interest for loan repayments.
Universities UK president, Steve Smith, says that universities face such deep budget cuts in the forthcoming spending review that an increase in fees to £7,000 would only replace the money that the government is about to withdraw.
"This is transferring the cost from the state to the student," said Professor Smith.
The Million+ group of new universities warned that this would create a "two-tier university system, with one set of universities for the rich and one set of universities for everybody else".
Lord Browne's review of university funding in England is set to deliver its recommendations to the government on Tuesday.
It appears likely that it will advise ministers to scrap the current upper limit on tuition fees, introducing a market in what students can be charged.
However the proposed funding mechanism will only fully underwrite the cost of fees up to £7,000 per year.
Universities will be able to charge above this limit - but as fees rise above £7,000 they will only be allowed to keep a diminishing proportion of the higher charges.
This is expected to act as a brake on raising fees above £7,000 - but the most sought-after courses in the most elite institutions would be expected to charge higher fees.
The coalition government will have to respond to such far-reaching proposals.
And senior sources have indicated that any final outcome will have to fulfil two main criteria - not to deter poorer students and not to increase the financial burden on the Treasury.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has already emphasised the importance of a "progressive" element to the student funding deal.
This could either come in the Browne report or in the government's response - and could mean that higher-earning graduates will pay back their loans at a higher rate of interest.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, said this could mean "those with the lowest incomes have their interest rate effectively subsidised".
But the raising of tuition fees will present deep political challenges to the Liberal Democrats.
The party's MPs, including leader Nick Clegg, signed personal pledges at the election to vote against any increase in tuition fees - and any attempt to reverse this will bring them under pressure from students and their own grassroots supporters.
The Liberal Youth group has already called for party members to mobilise against such a tuition fee increase.
Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland says many in his party will "oppose any attempt to raise fees in the way that has been leaked from the Browne report".
Students have warned against a "betrayal" of election pledges on tuition fees - and have circulated a photograph showing Nick Clegg and his signed pledge.
Oxford University students attacked the plans for higher fees, saying that Vince Cable has "slammed bankers for their role in the economic crisis and now just weeks later he is asking students to pick up the tab".
The National Union of Students says the suggestion to lift the limit on fees is a tactical step towards a more limited change.
"One is inclined to suspect that Lord Browne has been asked to make the most radical proposal possible in a thinly-veiled attempt to make the government response seem more reasonable," says NUS president, Aaron Porter.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has reached out to potential tuition fee rebels among Lib Dem MPs - saying that he will work with anyone wanting a more "progressive" student finance system.
Les Ebdon, chair of the Million+ group of universities, warned of a socially-divided university system.
"Only the most socially-elite universities could charge fees of £7,000 while universities with a high proportion of students from poorer families will feel unable to charge fees at such a high level.
"It is hard to see how this meets the government's stated aim of a fairer society."
Lord Browne's review is also expected to announce a student charter, to ensure students get value for money, and a changed role for university funding councils.


Citigroup economist Michael Saunders is to replace Martin Weale as one of the nine members on the Bank of England's interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the Treasury has said.

He will take over from Mr Weale, who often favoured higher interest rates, on 9 August.
UK chancellor George Osborne said Mr Saunders would be "a strong addition".
Earlier this week the MPC voted to keep rates at their record low, where they have been for more than seven years.
Mr Saunders is currently the head of European economics at the US-based bank Citigroup, where he has worked for more than 25 years.
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said: "On behalf of the Bank of England, I am delighted to welcome Michael Saunders to the Monetary Policy Committee.
"He brings first-rate knowledge of the UK economy and a wealth of economic and financial experience."
He also thanked Martin Weale for his work on the MPC over the past six years, which have made him the longest serving member of the rate setting committee.
Mr Weale was known as a hawk on the MPC for being one of its few members to have voted for a rise in interest rates in recent years.
Economists will be keen to assess the position of Mr Saunders on interest rates.
In a research note for Citigroup earlier this year Mr Saunders forecast that the Bank would hold interest rates at 0.5% until the end of 2016.
After that he saw interest rates rising to 1% by the end of 2017, and to 2% by the end of 2018.
Mr Saunders also warned of a "widespread loss of momentum" in the UK's economy since the start of the year.
He said the existing drag from a sluggish world economy has been reinforced by uncertainty about the outcome of the UK's referendum on its membership of the European Union (EU).
Following the publication of the latest minutes of the MPC Mr Saunders said he suspected it "would be willing to go further into unconventional policy if that proved necessary" in the event of a "Brexit" from the EU.


The Transocean Winner could not have been prevented from running aground, MPs have been told.

Westminster's transport committee has been taking evidence of the grounding of the rig on Lewis in a storm.
Leo Leusink, of towing firm ALP Maritime Services BV, said the rig was too close to shore to stop.
Sir Alan Massey, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, also told MPs that weather conditions at the time were "phenomenal".
He said it was "very unusual" for the Western Isles to have such a sustained period of bad weather at that time of year and said the Transocean Winner was an "extreme example of a maritime casualty".
Sir Alan also said that an emergency towing vessel (ETV) would have unlikely to have been able to make a difference in such conditions.
He said the role of an Orkney-based ETV that did respond to the incident was still under investigation.
Until 2012, Scotland had two ETVs available for towing ships that had grounded or broken down on Scotland's north and west coasts.
One ship continues to operate out of the Northern Isles, but there have been calls from Scottish politicians and island local authorities for a second vessel to be reinstated.
Members of the committee sought evidence from its invited witnesses for information on what a Coastguard ETV may have made to the situation.
MPs heard that a tow line, which had been doubled in strength for the job of taking the rig from Norway to the Mediterranean, broke while the Transocean Winner and its tug were off the Western Isles.
Dave Walls, operations director at the rig's owner Transocean, said the towing operation was only undertaken after a risk assessment had been made.
The assessment included checks of the weather forecast for the route.
Mr Walls said planning for towing operations always looked at ways of avoiding an emergency situation from occurring.
He said it was standard not to consider the availability of coastguard ETVs because it could never be known where they might be deployed.
Mr Leusink said that given the conditions the grounding could not have been prevented, though he did say that having an ETV available in the Western Isles may have been useful.
Hugh Shaw, Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, told the committee that at one point it looked as if the rig might miss coming ashore at Dalmore, near Carloway, on Lewis.
The rig is now being broken up for scrap at a yard in Turkey.
The 17,000-tonne structure came ashore at Dalmore, near Carloway on Lewis, in a storm while being towed to the Mediterranean.
It was later refloated and anchored at Broad Bay, Lewis, before being put on board the heavy lift ship Hawk.
The rig was first taken to Malta before being transported to Turkey.
The rig's grounding on 8 August sparked pollution fears due to the 280 tonnes of diesel on board.
Investigations found two of its four fuel tanks were damaged in the incident which resulted in the loss of 53,000 litres of fuel, most of which is thought to have evaporated with no damage to the environment.
Three weeks later it was towed to the safer anchorage at Broad Bay before being floated on to the deck of the Hawk, a semi-submersible ship used for transporting large maritime structures over long distances.


An earthquake has shaken parts of northern Italy, forcing some residents onto the streets.

The magnitude-4.8 quake struck at a depth of 15.5km (9.6 miles) 35km north of the city of Lucca, officials said.
The tremor was felt as far away as Milan and Florence, Italian media say. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Italy is prone to earthquakes. In 2009 almost 300 people died in a quake in L'Aquila in the central Abruzzo region.
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said the quake struck at 15:48 (14:48 GMT), with its epicentre in Garfagnana.
Several aftershocks of lower magnitude were felt across a large area.
Phone lines were down and power supplies were cut in the Garfagnana area, Italian news agency Ansa reports. As a precaution, schools were said to have been evacuated in the immediate vicinity and were to be checked for any damage.
In Milan, top floors of tall office blocks shook and the quake was also felt in the cities of Bologna and Modena.
In Lucca, people poured out into the streets, Ansa said.
Last May, two earthquakes in the same area left more than 20 people dead. The strongest tremor was magnitude-6 and caused significant damage.
Alessandro Amato of the INGV said the latest tremor "came out of nowhere", and described it as a classic earthquake for the area - "medium-strong" and "fairly shallow".
Italy is still trying to recover from the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in L'Aquila.
Six scientists and an ex-official were convicted of multiple manslaughter in October 2012 for giving a falsely reassuring statement.
The group, all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Serious Risks, were accused of having provided "inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory" information about the danger of the tremors felt ahead of the 6 April 2009 quake.
At a meeting a few days before the deadly quake, they had told officials in L'Aquila that, while a major earthquake was not impossible, it was not likely.
On the night of the quake, many people are said to have remained in their homes and died because of the advice, while others who had decided to remain outside in the street survived.


India has revoked the passport of business tycoon Vijay Mallya accused of hiding in Britain over huge debts from his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

There is an arrest warrant for Mr Mallya and Delhi says it is considering seeking his deportation from the UK.
The flamboyant businessman is known as India's Richard Branson for his investment in aviation, Formula 1, Indian cricket and the drinks industry.
His debts were triggered by the failure of his Kingfisher Airlines in 2013.
Authorities have given the businessman one week to answer why his passport should not be impounded or revoked.
He is believed to have some $1.4bn (Â£1bn) of unpaid debts after the collapse of the airline and is thought be in the UK.
Mr Mallya has dismissed allegations that he left India because of the outstanding debt and also criticised his "media trial" over the issue.
In March, he was blocked from receiving $75m severance pay from British drinks giant Diageo.
The heavily indebted businessman was due to receive the money after being ousted from the firm in February.
But a consortium of banks and creditors had demanded the money should be used to settle some of Mr Mallya's outstanding debt to them.
Earlier this month a consortium of 17 banks, led by the State Bank of India, rejected a proposal by Vijay Mallya to pay 40bn Indian rupees ($600m; Â£416.4m) by September, to settle his loans. The group said the offer was inadequate and subject to too many conditions.
Following the rejection, the Supreme Court in New Delhi then asked the businessman to make a full disclosure of his assets.


Bristol City have signed on-loan Wigan goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell to a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee.

O'Donnell has agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the Robins.
The 27-year-old has made four appearances for the Championship club since joining in January as cover for injured City number one Frank Fielding.
O'Donnell featured in 12 games in all competitions for League One side Wigan, having arrived on a free transfer from Walsall in July.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek is out of England's Under-21 squad for the European Championships in Poland.

The 21-year-old has a back injury and was not included as the initial squad of 28 was trimmed to a final 23 by manager Aidy Boothroyd.
Chelsea's Izzy Brown and Manchester City's Patrick Roberts are also out because of injuries.
Keeper Joe Wildsmith (Sheffield Wednesday) and defender Sam McQueen (Southampton) were omitted.
However, Wildsmith and McQueen are both on standby.
The tournament starts on Friday, 16 June when England face Sweden in their opening game of a group which also includes Poland and Slovakia.
Goalkeepers: Angus Gunn (Manchester City), Jonathan Mitchell (Derby County), Jordan Pickford (Sunderland).
Defenders: Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), Kortney Hause (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rob Holding (Arsenal), Mason Holgate (Everton), Dominic Iorfa (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Alfie Mawson (Swansea City), Jack Stephens (Southampton), Matt Targett (Southampton).
Midfielders: Lewis Baker (Chelsea), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Will Hughes (Derby County), John Swift (Reading), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton).
Forwards: Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Demarai Gray (Leicester City), Jacob Murphy (Norwich City), Nathan Redmond (Southampton), Cauley Woodrow (Fulham).


Now that Hurricane Junior has blown through Washington, special counsel Robert Mueller - charged with investigating possible ties between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign - faces the task of sifting through the debris.

According to CNN, the former FBI director and his team of crack investigators were caught somewhat flat-footed by the recent email revelations. They were believed to have been focusing their attention on former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chair Paul Manafort, among others.
As it turns out, the first bit of concrete public evidence that someone in the president's inner circle might be open to Russian assistance in the presidential election involved Mr Trump's eldest son.
The president, Trump Jr and his administration have quickly reformed their defences and are now dismissing the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June as a minor event during a hurly-burly political season, largely lost in the fog of time, that led to nothing and which they have been admirably "transparent" in discussing.
Key members of Congress seem to think otherwise, with senators like Republican Susan Collins of Maine calling for Trump Jr to be questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa eager to bring Manafort before his Senate Judiciary Committee.
But while Congress gears up for more hearings, Mr Mueller operates quietly behind the scenes. Where might he look first? What threads, revealed in Trump Jr's emails, will he and his team tug on, to see what unravels?
Here are a few of the tempting questions he might be tempted to ask.
Nestled toward the end of music publicist Goldstone's explosive first email to Trump Jr about the "official documents and information" the Russian government supposedly had about Hillary Clinton was that this constituted just "part of" Russia's support for his father, "helped along by Aras and Emin" Agalarov, the father-son Moscow-based real estate duo.
It's a rather stunning detail for Goldstone to have offhandedly mentioned - and one that Trump Jr, in his "love it" response, seems to have breezed past with no comment.
That kind of remark, however, would cause anyone looking for evidence of a Trump-Russia campaign collusion to stop dead in their tracks and ask: "What's the rest of the story?"
Why is this British guy emailing Trump Jr?
Even if one takes Veselnitskaya at her word that she is not an agent of the Russian government and did not know or provide any damaging information about Mrs Clinton to the Trump team during the 9 June meeting, her own recent admissions raise some pressing questions.
On Tuesday she told an NBC interviewer that Trump Jr, Manafort and Kushner may have been "longing for" the dirt on their Democratic opponent.
"They wanted it so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted," she said.
In other words, Veselnitskaya walked out of that meeting in New York with the belief that Mr Trump's campaign both was desperately seeking damaging information about Mrs Clinton and were open to talking to Russian nationals about what they might have to offer.
Given that Veselnitskaya is at the very least a well-connected figure in Moscow, it doesn't require a great leap of faith to think this information eventually made its way to the Russian government. If the US intelligence community is to be believed, that government soon would acquire a trove of damaging information about Mrs Clinton and the Democrats as a result of hacks it co-ordinated into the Democratic National Committee server and the personal email of a senior member of Mrs Clinton's campaign team.
In the ensuing months, details from those hacks would be made public via Wikileaks at times that were particularly damaging to Mrs Clinton.
Derogatory statements about Mrs Clinton's Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders were produced the week before Democrats gathered for their national convention. Transcripts of Mrs Clinton's paid speeches to Goldman Sachs were published just days before the final presidential debate - and cited during that showdown by Mr Trump himself.
The Trump campaign wanted dirt on Mrs Clinton. The Russian government had it in spades. Mr Mueller might want to see if those dots can be connected.
Another choice tidbit in that first Goldstone email was his suggestion that he might "send this info to your father via Rhona" - a reference to Rhona Graff, the elder Trump's personal assistant.
Graff has served as the gatekeeper to Mr Trump at the Trump organisation - and, according to a profile in Politico, still is the preferred method for the president's business associates to contact him outside of White House channels.
"If I really wanted to whisper something in his ear, I would probably go to Rhona," Trump business associate John Catsimatidis told the publication.
The White House has said that Mr Trump did not know about the meeting with Veselnitskaya - despite the fact that his son, son-in-law and campaign chief were in attendance and it took place in his New York tower.
If this assertion is proven to be inaccurate, Rhona could be the key.
Trump Jr meeting scandal: The key players
The middle portion of the email chain released on Tuesday morning involved Trump Jr and Goldstone trying to set up a phone conversation with Russian pop star/businessman Emin Agalarov.
After a fair bit of wrangling the two apparently spoke, and the very next email was Goldstone informing Trump Jr he was scheduling the meeting with the "Russian government attorney" (Veselnitskaya) for later in the week.
Mr Mueller and congressional investigators may be interested in learning what Agalarov said that convinced Mr Trump to move ahead with the plans for a face-to-face gathering.
And what was the nature of the relationship between Agalarov and the Trump clan, in light of Goldstone's observation that Emin and his father were helping Russia's support of the Trump campaign?
Did Donald Trump Jr break the law?
Four days after the first email from Goldstone to Trump Jr about the incriminating information the Russia government was said to have about Mrs Clinton, candidate Trump promised to give a "major speech" the following week discussing "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons", including Mrs Clinton's alleged misdeeds while serving as secretary of state.
"I think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting," he added.
That speech, originally announced for the Monday after the Trump camp's New York meeting with Veselnitskaya, never took place.
Was this an indication that the elder Trump may have known about the meeting - which, according to Trump Jr, did not produce the promised dirt on Mrs Clinton?
That's one more question Mr Mueller might be mulling.
Follow Anthony Zurcher on Twitter.


The family of a woman who died on the way home from her son's wedding after a car chased by police hit her taxi have spoken about their anger and disbelief.

Marie Laurie, 57, from Easterhouse, had just got into the taxi with her husband when it was struck by a Vauxhall Astra on Edinburgh Road at 01:30 on Sunday.
She died at the scene. Her husband is in a serious condition in hospital.
Mrs Laurie's family told the BBC they were angry she had lost her life in those circumstances.
Her sister Alison said: "We're angry. It might sound really bad but someone can walk away with a cut and my sister is not coming back."
She said her sister had just got in to the taxi with her 52-year-old husband Jamie when the crash happened.
"Jamie had not even got time to sit down. He said he looked up and saw headlights coming and then woke up after it."
Mrs Laurie's niece Michelle said the family had been enjoying "an amazing day" and described their disbelief at losing her aunt.
"She was happy. We're just so glad that we got to spend that day with her," she said.
"She was proud of her son, happy to see her all her family together. It's just been so hard because we were all together up dancing, having dinner, drinking champagne and then to be woken to be told she's not here.
"You're waiting on her walking in, to sit and grieve with us, as if it's somebody else. It happens to other people's family, it doesn't happen to our family. You read it in the paper, see it on the soaps."
Police said previously that the green Vauxhall Astra drove off from Springhill Industrial Estate shortly before the crash after it did not respond to attempts by officers in a police van to pull it over.
The crash happened as the van, with blue lights flashing, pursued the car on Edinburgh Road.
The man driving the taxi, aged 50, suffered minor injuries, as did the 20-year-old male driver of the Vauxhall and his 16-year-old female passenger.
The 20-year-old car driver has since been reported to the procurator fiscal in connection with alleged road traffic offences.
The force also said that the matter had been referred to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner for consideration as is "standard procedure" in such cases.


Torquay United could be in a new ground by 2019, says chairman David Phillips.

The cash-strapped National League club is currently up for sale, but despite their financial problems Phillips says a new stadium is the best way forward.
"We're looking ahead to a new ground. It's not absolutely concrete yet, but it's very, very likely that we'll be in in about three years," Phillips said.
"When we get to that stage we'll become a self-sustaining club. It's just in the meantime we need financing."
The Gulls first mooted moving to a new ground on the outskirts of the town in February, and have been at their current Plainmoor home for the past 105 years.
Torbay Council own Plainmoor, which ultimately proved to be the stumbling block as a takeover bid for the club faltered last week.
Phillips says a developer would build the ground and give it to the Gulls, but benefit from developing other businesses on land adjacent to the new stadium.
And Phillips says a ground with a synthetic pitch, which could be hired out to other users, would allow the club to be financially viable.
"You have 3G pitches, various sports going on, it's going to be open to all the community, not just Torquay United," he told BBC Sport.
"Torquay United would be the holders of that ground, we'll make money and everyone will get benefits from that.
"I know the council are very keen on this happening, so that's the future, and it's a great future, we just have to survive the next few years."


Expectations are low but the pressure is high for Donald Trump as he prepares for the second presidential debate on Sunday night.

At this point, the performance bar from the Republican candidate is so subterranean you'd have to notify local utility companies before digging for it. Given Mr Trump's poor performance in the first debate and his inability to maintain any semblance of message discipline in the weeks since, mere coherence on stage may be enough to earn positive reviews.
When it comes to what he needs to accomplish, however, surpassing expectations won't be enough. Trump will have to be a political pole-vaulter to clear the bar required to get back in this race. He's trailing in the polls, the 2005 "hot mic" tape in which he boasts of sexually harassing women has caused an exodus of support among Republican officeholders, and many Americans are already casting ballots in key swing states. Time is running out, and he needs a triumphant performance to shake things up.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton faces challenges of her own. Mr Trump is down, and she has to make sure he stays there. Can she finish him off without overreaching? Will she make a positive case to voters who may dislike the Republican but may be considering third-party alternates?
Complicating all of this is the debate's town-hall format, which rewards empathy and punishes politicians who go negative or dodge questions.
These types of events can be unpredictable, given that the priorities and concerns of the average-voter participants are often different, and differently expressed, than those of traditional media-savvy moderators.
Here are four questions that will make Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump squirm, however, even if they should see them coming.
The Republican nominee was already suffering from high negative ratings among female voters before his lewd comments in 2005 went public. Now, however, he faces a historic wipe-out in that key demographic.
When he's forced to address the controversy - it will be the first question asked, according to media reports  - he has two choices on how to handle it.
The first is contrition. He could unconditionally apologise, say he has erred but has been redeemed by his experiences on the campaign trail, then move on to discussing his populist economic message.
This is the tactic that the Republican leadership, focused on avoiding disastrous losses in down-ballot races, would like him to pursue. Many officeholders who haven't abandoned the nominee at this point have said they want to see a humble Mr Trump take the stage on Sunday night.
The other option is total war. Mr Trump offers a pro-forma apology, then goes scorched-earth on Mrs Clinton, trying to tie her as a willing accomplice to every allegation of her husband's sexual misconduct both confirmed and unfounded.
Given that Mr Trump recently re-tweeted stories about the rape accusations made by Juanita Broaddrick against Bill Clinton and has mentioned the former president by name in both his video and printed statements on Friday, this isn't an unlikely scenario.
Mr Trump often boasts that he's a counter-puncher who responds with overwhelming force if he's attacked. He's probably itching to unload, even if it may not be in his party's best interests.
Why this Trump row is different
Mr Trump has been telegraphing a personal attack on Mrs Clinton and her husband practically since the end of the last debate, so she should be well prepared should the subject come up. If you don't think her campaign has already focus-group-tested responses that will resonate with female voters in swing states, you don't know how they roll.
Something along the lines of, "My husband cheated on me and I decided to keep our family together. That was my choice, just like you cheated on your wives and they decided to leave you" could be a political kill shot.
Knowing what to do and actually pulling it off in the heat of a debate, however, are two different things. A coin toss means Mrs Clinton will be asked about this before Mr Trump, so she may want to hold her heaviest fire until after he tips his hand. Or she could try to goad him into an angry, impolitic response.
Mrs Clinton is an intensely private politician, and a baring-of-the-soul moment where she acknowledges her husband's infidelity would be extraordinarily difficult for her. She may instead choose to express her disgust at Mr Trump's statements and move on. That could be the safe move, but it also may let Mr Trump off the hook and allow him to paint his transgressions and her husband's as equivalent.
If Mr Trump doesn't attack, Mrs Clinton has to decide how hard to press the issue. She must sense her opponent is vulnerable, but she can't be seen as politically opportunistic. She's been dealt a strong hand, but she can still overplay it.
Katty Kay: Hillary's campaign and Bill's women
Remember when Mr Trump's taxes were going to be the big issue that was litigated during this debate? The political bombshell of last week seems like a distant memory, but it still is likely to come up - and could cause the Republican nominee untold headaches.
Mr Trump got irretrievably bogged down in his answer to the tax question in the first debate, and running-mate Mike Pence didn't do much better in the vice-presidential debate last week.
The challenge for Mr Trump is three-fold.
He needs to explain why he continues to refuse to release his tax returns. The under-audit excuse he has tried to roll out continues to be insufficient cover, given that he's said he's been under audit for more than a decade.
Second, he needs to tell the average voters in the debate hall why it is OK that they pay federal taxes every year but he seemingly managed to avoid them for as long as 18 years. Taking advantage of deductions is one thing, but such a long period of avoidance makes it appear he's playing by a different set of rules than most Americans.
And third, he needs to explain how he managed to lose nearly a billion dollars in 1995. Were they real losses or paper ones? How does that reflect on his proclamations of being a world-class businessman?
Who is ahead in the polls?
49%
Hillary Clinton
45%
Donald Trump
Last updated October 3, 2016
He could opt for saying that he knows how corrupt the tax system is, which makes him best positioned to fix it. That's how he's pitched his views on campaign finance reform in the past.
More effective, however, could be packaging his response in a redemptive narrative. He had his failures in the 1990s and rebuilt his empire, just as he will rebuild the nation. If he combines that with contrition for his past sexual transgressions, he may be able to frame himself as the sinner who has seen the light.
Of course, that would require up-till-now-unheard-of rhetorical deftness on Mr Trump's part.
How could Donald Trump have avoided tax?
Could Republicans still dump Trump?
Buried beneath all the talk of Mr Trump's genital-grabbing was the story that key parts of Mrs Clinton's Wall Street speeches have apparently become public, thanks to (Russian?) hackers and Wikileaks.
The purloined missives, if they are indeed legitimate, paint a picture of Mrs Clinton as a globalist and Machiavellian moderate whose dreams of hemispheric unity would confirm the worst fears of blue-collar workers leaning toward Mr Trump and Bernie Sanders's populist supporters.
So far, the Clinton campaign has attempted to dismiss the revelations as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to tilt the election to Mr Trump. Blanket denials may not be enough, however.
During the first debate, one of Mr Trump's few truly successful moments was confronting Mrs Clinton on her past praise for free trade deals. He pushed her to renounce her support for President Barack Obama's efforts to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and she never came up with an adequate response.
It's all but impossible to make the case for the diffuse economic benefits of free trade in the current political climate. It's somewhat easier to defend immigration, given the importance of the Hispanic vote in swing states and the reluctance of many Americans to embrace Mr Trump's hard-line policy prescriptions.
Mrs Clinton will have to come up with an answer that doesn't appear shaped by political expediency. On immigration, that may be easy. On trade it will be very, very hard.
Trump v Clinton: Who's ahead in the polls?


A hospital placed in special measures last year has failed to meet eight of the 11 national safety standards during an unannounced inspection.

"Serious shortfalls" were identified at Tameside General Hospital when the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited.
Staff lacked understanding of mental health laws and found one patient who had been unlawfully detained for "several days", the CQC said.
The NHS trust said it was working hard to make improvements.
Interim chief executive Karen James said issues raised by the inspection, including the safeguarding of vulnerable adults, additional training and staff shortages, were being addressed.
The CQC said a number of wards and the medical assessment and admissions unit did not have enough staff, leaving medics rushing to complete tasks.
Elsewhere in the hospital, some patients were not being treated in a dignified way, the inspection found.
The six-day inspection took place in January.
Tameside was one of a number of hospitals investigated for having a high mortality rate in the wake of the Stafford Hospital scandal.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced Tameside and 10 other trusts had been put in special measures due to "fundamental breaches of care".
Malcolm Bower-Brown, the CQC's regional director for the north, said changes were needed to ensure patients received the care they were entitled to.
"Although we were pleased to find improvement in some areas since our last inspection, our inspectors found a number of serious shortfalls against national standards," he said.
"We will return shortly to check that the necessary changes have been made and can be sustained for the future."
The trust said it took the report's findings seriously.


Paisley has been shortlisted as the sole Scottish contender vying to become the UK City of Culture in 2021.

The Renfrewshire town is up against Coventry, Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea for the title, credited with attracting major investment to former winners.
The UK government's department for digital, culture, media and sport will announce the winner at the end of the year.
A bid by Perth to make the shortlist was unsuccessful.
Paisley's bid focused on a Â£42m plan to create a national museum of textile and design and reconnect the town with its famous Paisley Pattern.
The bid has also been backed by some of the town's most high-profile figures, including singer Paolo Nutini, actor Gerard Butler, artist John Byrne and designer Pam Hogg.
The Paisley 2021 Partnership Board, which placed the bid, said that if Paisley was chosen, it could provide a Â£172m economic boost to the town and create the equivalent of 4,700 jobs over a 10-year period.
Board chairman, Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson, said: "For the judges to have shortlisted us is a major endorsement of our ambitions for Paisley and Renfrewshire - and we are in it to win it.
"I know local people will be absolutely thrilled at this news - we want to thank every one of them as they are the ones whose incredible contribution made it happen."
Mr Nicolson said that more than 30,000 people had joined in with the bid, equivalent to almost half the town's population, and that winning the title would be a "major boost".
He added: "Aside from hosting some of the world's best performers and bringing more than a million people to Paisley in 2021, it would over the long-term create thousands of new jobs, and allow us to attract massive investment and build a new town centre economy with tourism and creativity at its heart."
Paisley 2021 bid director Jean Cameron added: "There's never been a Scottish winner and we would be thrilled to be the first - we are now Scotland's bid and would love to see the whole country get behind us."
The leader of Perth Council, Ian Campbell, said there were no regrets about pursuing the bid.
He said: "Perth is a small city with huge ambitions, and the experience of developing our bid has absolutely cemented our conviction that we can achieve these."
Derry-Londonderry was the first city to host the title in 2013. Hull will host the 2017 version, during which the 2021 winner will be announced.


Police in Brazil have seized 60 assault rifles that had been smuggled from the US city of Miami in a shipment of swimming pool heaters.

The weapons, which included 45 AK-47 guns, were found at the cargo terminal at Rio de Janeiro's Galeao International Airport.
Four people have been arrested, police said.
It is one of the largest seizures of such weapons in Brazilian history, local media reported.
Authorities put the rifles on show, and released an X-ray image that showed the wrapped guns concealed inside the containers of pool heating systems.
It is believed the guns could have been sold in Brazil for up to $1.5m (Â£1.1m) in total. Detectives are investigating an exporter in Miami, Globo newspaper reported without identifying them.
Security forces in Brazil are struggling to stop powerful automatic weapons falling into the hands of drugs gangs and militia groups which control poorer areas of major cities.


Wales men's hockey team are through to the semi-finals of the World League 2 tournament with a 3-0 win over Italy.

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Gareth Furlong gave Wales the lead in the first period before securing a second goal from a penalty stroke.
Rupert Shipperley finished a strong team goal to take Wales 3-0 up as they dominated the game.
Wales will now face either Ireland in Saturday's semi-finals with the hope of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in India.
Co-captain Luke Hawker says they squad have developed over the course of the eight-day tournament.
"It is probably the first time this week we've put a 70 minute display together on both sides of the ball.
"Really pleasing to come away with the three goals and the victory but equally as pleasing to keep a clean sheet. That's something we pride ourselves on.
"We keep pushing ourselves. Keep asking a bit more. Every time we go back to the video and review the game just gone.
"Both our rest days were down here on the training ground and fine tuning really. It's great to see that transferring into on field performances"
A top-two finish in the eight-team tournament would lift Wales in the rankings and give them a chance of a first World Cup appearance.
Their victory against Italy puts them just one win away from the final, which would enable them to qualify for the World League Semi Finals tournament to be played this summer, which acts as a World Cup qualifier.
Wales could also qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games if they are ranked in the top 10 eligible nations by the end of the season.
"For us this is a victory in a sense. The tournament and coming here and getting to semi-final is great for us as a group," Hawker continued.
"We are not the sort of squad who will rest on our laurels. The hard work's done. I think we can play with a bit of freedom and go on and see if we can get that cherry at the end."


Thousands of homes in tower blocks across Scotland do not have potentially life-saving sprinkler systems, a BBC Scotland investigation has found.

There are no sprinklers in flats in more than 300 high-rise buildings in towns and cities across the country, including Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Every high-rise built in Scotland since 2005 must have sprinklers, by law.
But there is no obligation on councils or social landlords to fit the systems in older tower blocks.
There were no sprinkler systems in Grenfell Tower in Kensington, west London, when it was engulfed by a devastating fire last month that killed at least 80 people.
It has led to renewed calls from firefighters and politicians to retrofit the devices in high-rise buildings.
And the Scottish government has pledged to review the evidence about the effectiveness of the systems.
An independent report published earlier this year found that sprinklers were 99% effective at controlling or extinguishing fires.
BBC Scotland contacted local authorities and housing associations across Scotland in a bid to determine how many high-rise homes were fitted with sprinklers.
Of those which replied to our request, only South Ayrshire Council said it had fitted the system into flats in its tower blocks.
They were fitted in 234 homes in three tower blocks in Ayr during a refurbishment of the flats in 2003.
Fife Council, the City of Edinburgh Council and Glasgow Housing Association have sprinklers in their bin stores - a move being considered by Aberdeen City Council.
But there are no sprinklers in high-rise homes operated by the following social landlords:
(South Lanarkshire Council has not yet supplied the information to BBC Scotland)
There is no suggestion that any of the councils or housing associations are breaching fire regulations and they have reassured tenants about fire safety in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
In response to the BBC Scotland inquiry, a number of landlords said they would act on any of the findings or recommendations made following the London fire.
Sprinkler systems can be a "cost effective and potentially lifesaving intervention in the early stages of a fire," according to Assistant Chief Officer David McGown, of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).
Indeed, an independent report published shortly before the Grenfell tragedy found that sprinklers - or fire suppression systems - were 99% effective at controlling or extinguishing fires when they operate.
The study, which was commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council and the National Sprinkler Network found that they reduce damage in residential properties by 75%.
Lead author Peter Wood, of Edinburgh-based Optimal Economics, told BBC Scotland he was confident of the effectiveness of sprinklers but he had "no idea" whether they would have prevented the Grenfell Tower fire.
He said they "very, very occasionally" do not work when they are overwhelmed by a fire but he dismissed concerns that sprinklers could be easily triggered, causing flooding, as a "myth".
"Sprinklers don't go off on a whim," he said. "They need heat to go off."
According to the SFRS, many sprinklers are only triggered by heats of around 68C - 11C higher than the highest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley in California.
They said firefighters often use 15 times more water from hoses to do the same job as a single sprinkler.
Earlier this month Strathclyde's former chief fire officer, Brian Sweeney, said the installation of sprinklers in all high-rise buildings should be a "government priority".
Writing in the Sunday Post, he said: "As a rough estimate, there is currently up to 1,000 high rise blocks across Scotland, and more could be done to improve their safety."
His comments follow a 2015 report commissioned by the Scottish government which examined the "cost benefit analysis" of fitting sprinkler systems in homes across Scotland.
It found that the cost of fitting sprinklers in individual flats would range from around Â£1,000 to Â£3,000.
And it concluded that it was not cost-effective to fit sprinklers in individual houses, but a "targeted installation" would benefit at-risk groups.
People who live in deprived areas, those with drug and alcohol problems, or mental health problems, and elderly people are at greater risk from fire.
MSP David Stewart pressed the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Angela Constance, on the issue in the Scottish Parliament earlier this week.
"The cabinet secretary will be well aware from the Scottish government's own 2015 report that almost a third of accidental dwelling fires and deaths occur in the 15% most-deprived areas, yet there have been no multiple fire deaths in Scotland where a working sprinkler system has been installed," he said.
He told BBC Scotland he would like to see sprinklers installed in the homes of vulnerable people, which included tower blocks.
Ms Constance has agreed to meet Mr Stewart - a member of the cross-party working group on accident prevention - to discuss the issue.
The Scottish government has confirmed that the provision of sprinklers will be considered in a review of fire legislation and building regulations - to which the fire service will contribute.
Assistant Chief Officer David McGown said: "The SFRS recognises the value these installations can add whilst acknowledging that they may not be appropriate in all cases when applied on a risk basis."
He added: "The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service works closely with local authorities and housing associations to help ensure the safety of occupants in high-rise buildings. The SFRS is here to support communities, most notably through our free home fire safety visits."
A spokesman for the Scottish government said: "While we continue to be confident that we have stringent building and fire safety regulations which contribute to keeping people safe, following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower it is imperative that we undertake a thorough and critical review of our regulations.
"The Ministerial Working Group overseeing this process will consider all relevant measures to ensure the safety of residents in high-rise domestic buildings, including a review of evidence on fire suppression systems."


There is an argument that falling prices in the eurozone, deflation, are good news for them across the Channel but pretty awful for us here in Britain.

How so?
Well the big contributor to falling prices is the tumbling oil price, which saw the cost of energy fall 6.3% in December - and will generate even bigger reductions in the weeks and months ahead, as prices at the pumps adjust.
As I've been boring on about, cheaper fuel puts money into the pockets of consumers and businesses - and it is possible, even likely, that they will spend at least some of that, thus stimulating the economy.
Let's be clear, there's not exactly rip-roaring inflation in other sectors of the eurozone economy. Prices of industrial goods (excluding energy-related ones) were flat - although actually that's an improvement on the falls of 0.1% in the two preceding months.
And in the biggest and most important sector, services, there is inflation of 1.2%, unchanged through the autumn.
Stripping out items which are to a large extent determined by global demand conditions - energy, food, alcohol and tobacco - prices rose 0.8%, again pretty much unchanged through the autumn.
Or to put it another way, there is not endemic deflation yet in the eurozone. We are not yet witnessing a pernicious Japanese-style mindset for households and companies, that there's no point spending today if goods and services can be bought cheaper tomorrow - which is what would create a vicious spiral of falling prices engendering ever shrinking demand and activity.
Of course deflation would create the second whammy of the eurozone's debt become bigger in "real" terms.
And we should be under no illusion that the deflation threat is a real one - especially since the important characteristic of the euro area is stagnation, with worryingly high unemployment refusing to come down.
So that's why today's economics in the eurozone are worrying, but not yet devastating.
However, because the risk of deflation is a real one, the likelihood is that the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will win his battle with the Germans such that later this month we will see the central bank catch up with the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England by launching quantitative easing involving the purchase of government bonds.
Earlier this week I wrote of my concerns that the QE scheme to be announced would be a sub-optimal hybrid.
But to state the bloomin' obvious, the more that investors and markets become hysterical about possible incipient deflation, the more likely it is that Mr Draghi's QE will be bigger and bolder.
That in effect means that interest rates in the eurozone will drop even more - that the cost of debt and money will drop below even their current lows.
More relevantly to us, the euro will become even cheaper relative to the pound.
Which is why, to go back to where I started, eurozone price falls are very bad news for Britain.
Because, as you know, my big concern about the UK is its massive 6% current account deficit - the gap between what we earn from the rest of the world from our trade and investments and what we pay to the rest of the world.
Now we already have significant trade deficits with Germany (with which our trade deficit is the biggest of all our trading partners), France, the Netherlands, Belgium/Luxembourg, and Spain.
Our deficit on trade with the euro area is the biggest of any country - between January and September of this year, it was 70.3bn euros or Â£55bn, up from 54bn euros in the comparable period of the previous year.
All other things being equal, a weakening euro will widen that deficit further - as UK exports to the euro area become more expensive, and imports from the eurozone become cheaper.
Or to put it another way, the European Central Bank's putative cure for eurozone deflation is to export it to us - strengthening sterling will harm our exporters and put our already low inflation rate of 1% under downward pressure.
Now this danger that we import their deflation is happening while we have bigger aggregate indebtedness than most of the eurozone (that's household, business and government debt as a share of GDP or national income) and that indebtedness is being exacerbated by our intractable inability to pay our way in the world.
If serious deflation took hold in the UK, we would experience a hideous combination of economic stagnation and growing doubts about our ability to service our huge debts.
Mario Draghi's supposed cure for the eurozone's economic woes could be toxic for us.


A village in Ceredigion has been "split in two" following a partial collapse of a historical bridge.

The bridge connecting Llanfair Clydogau, near Lampeter, has been closed after part of it gave way at the weekend.
It has left residents with an eight-mile (13km) detour - a 25-minute journey - to the shop and post office.
Residents said it had caused "havoc" in the village. Ceredigion council said reopening the bridge was a "priority".
Frustrated resident Colin Adams said: "The shops are on this side, but the majority of people live on the other side of the village. They can't get across."
Community councillor Alan Leech said it was a "major problem" for the village.
"We want action very quickly indeed because the inconvenience to people is substantial," he said.
"And of course there are cost implications for ordinary people here because everyone wishing to get to the shop is having to drive round a detour...which is wasteful of time, wasteful of fuel."
"What we want to know is, what is the county council going to do about this and how quickly is it going to be put right?"
Ceredigion council said engineers had inspected the bridge, which is listed, and it would liaise with conservation body Cadw on when it could reopen.


The Conservative MP who stepped down as minister for civil society over a newspaper story about his private life has said he has been "a complete fool".

Brooks Newmark told the BBC: "I have no-one to blame but myself. I have hurt those I care about most."
The MP for Braintree in Essex is reported to have sent an explicit image of himself to an undercover reporter from the Sunday Mirror.
In a resignation statement, he asked for his privacy to be respected.
In his comments to BBC political correspondent Chris Mason, Mr Newmark added: "I am so, so sorry. But I just need time with my family".
The Sunday Mirror said its reporter had been posing as a young female activist.
Mr Newmark's announcement on Saturday came on the eve of the Conservative party conference and hours after fellow Tory MP Mark Reckless said he was quitting the party to join UKIP.
In his resignation statement, the 56-year-old said: "I have decided to resign as minister for civil society having been notified of a story to be published in a Sunday newspaper.
"I would like to appeal for the privacy of my family to be respected at this time.
"I remain a loyal supporter of this government as its long-term economic plan continues to deliver for the British people."
Mr Newmark, who has been the MP for Braintree since 2005 and became minister for civil society in July, is married and has five children.
Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East, has been appointed as Mr Newmark's replacement at the Cabinet Office.
Speaking on Sky News, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Mr Newmark had "done the right thing" in resigning from ministerial office.
Asked whether he thought Mr Newmark had been entrapped, Mr Fallon said he was unable to comment as he "hadn't seen the details".
Another MP, Nadine Dorries, told Sky his resignation was only a "distraction" to the start of the Conservative Party conference.
She said Mr Newmark had been "stupid... he's let himself down and his family down, but I don't think it's that big a deal".


Midfielder Jak McCourt has joined League Two Chesterfield following his release by Northampton Town.

Former Barnsley player McCourt, 22, joins the Spireites on a two-year deal.
He made 32 appearances in all competitions last season after joining Northampton on a free from Barnsley.
"He's technically a good player as well as being very aggressive and a tough tackler," Chesterfield manager Gary Caldwell said. "Jak gives us something we don't have in midfield."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


For a team dubbed "the worst in England", it was a fitting way to go out.

A 9-0 hammering on Saturday relegated New Mills from the eighth-tier Northern Premier League Division One North.
The Derbyshire club, who have a goal difference of -115, have not won a match all season and only managed two draws.
Their league record reads; Played 35, lost 33, drawn two, scored 21 and conceded 136.
Bottom of the league on two points, they are 26 points from safety with seven games left.
And Aston Villa fans thought they had it bad...
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New Everton manager Roberto Martinez promised to guide the club to Champions League qualification, chairman Bill Kenwright has revealed.

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Former Wigan boss Martinez, 39, has been appointed on a four-year contract at Goodison Park.
Age: 39
Playing career: Real Zaragoza (1993-94), Balaguer (1994-95), Wigan Athletic (1995-2001), Motherwell (2001-02), Walsall (2002-03), Swansea (2003-06), Chester City (2006-07)
Playing honours: Copa del Rey (1994), Football League Third Division title (1996-97), Football League Trophy (1998-99 & 2005-06)
Managerial career: Swansea City (2007-09) and Wigan Athletic (2009-13)
Managerial honours: League One title (2007-08) & FA Cup (2012-13)
"When David [Moyes] first came to see me, he sat down 11 years ago and we were in a bad state, and he said 'we're not going down'," said Kenwright.
"Roberto's first words were 'I'll get you in the Champions League'."
The Spaniard replaces David Moyes, who is taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Premier League champions Manchester United.
During the Scot's stay with the Toffees he was unable to lead them to the group stage of Europe's top club competition.
The closest he came was in 2005 when, after they finished fourth in the Premier League, Everton were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Spanish side Villarreal in the qualifying round.
After Kenwright revealed what Martinez had told him about his ambitions for the club, the Spaniard said Everton needed "to keep building" on his predecessor's success.
"The chairman has not put any pressure on me," he said. "It is simple to take this job, really.
"The fans need to know they are the most important part of this club, and I will need them. What David Moyes has done is set a real high standard.
"We need to make sure we are a winning side and a strong side, who can carry on achieving more.
"Finishing in the top six was a magnificent achievement, and we need to keep building if we want to improve on that."
Martinez joined Wigan from Swansea in 2009, returning to the side he had played for during a six-year spell.
"Fans assembled outside the stadium warmly welcomed David Moyes's replacement on his arrival, saying they hoped he will employ a more attacking style of football.
"And as Martinez walked into Goodison Park for the first time as manager the club motto, inscribed above the front entrance, read 'nil satis nisi optimum'. Translation? 'Nothing but the best is good enough.'
"Martinez is now fully aware of the ambitions of his new employers."
He won the FA Cup this season when Wigan defeated Manchester City, but asked to leave after failing to keep them in the Premier League.
When asked why he had chosen to leave Wigan now, having been targeted by Aston Villa and Liverpool in previous summers, he added: "It is simple: it came in a natural way.
"It has been a phenomenal time at Wigan but after four seasons this was the right time and I knew Everton was the right club.
"It has been a natural transition to be involved in such an exciting club."
Martinez revealed he had been promised "a few quid to sign a few players" by Kenwright.
The Blues chairman also promised to try to resist offers for current members of his squad.
Martinez went on to name England centre-back Phil Jagielka as his new captain.
The 30-year-old defender replaces Phil Neville, whose eight-year stay on Merseyside ends at the end of this month.


China's state news agency has branded Philippine President Benigno Aquino a "disgrace" for his comments warning the world not to appease China like Europe once appeased Nazi Germany.

Benigno Aquino told the New York Times that the world must learn a lesson from 1938, when the UK and France allowed Hitler his claims to Czech territory.
China claims parts of the South China Sea which the Philippines disputes.
The spat is the latest in a war of words between China and its neighbours.
Mr Aquino called on the world to do more to support his country against China's claims to its nearby seas.
"At what point do you say: 'Enough is enough'? Well, the world has to say it. Remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II," Mr Aquino said.
The Sudetenland was part of what was then called Czechoslovakia before the UK and France agreed to allow Hitler to take it.
The comments quickly drew the ire of China's official state news agency Xinhua, which published an article calling Mr Aquino "ignorant".
The remarks "exposed his true colours as an amateurish politician, who was ignorant both of history and reality", the article said.
China claims ownership of large parts of the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal, which lie off the coast of the Philippines.
China says its claim stems from 2,000 years of historical convention, but the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, dispute this.
The remarks are the latest in a war of words between China and the other countries in the region with which it has territorial disputes.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy at the economic forum in Davos last month, when he said that China and Japan were "in a similar situation" to Germany and Britain just before the outbreak of World War I.
He said that strong trade ties did not in themselves preclude the outbreak of war.
Mr Abe went on to criticise China's annual double-digit increase in military spending, saying it was a major source of instability in the region.
In response,  Xinhua referred to Mr Abe as the "disgraced Japanese prime minister".


Wimbledon may be one of the oldest names associated with tennis, but it is not the longest established.

Babolat, the French racquet manufacturer, began making strings for players in 1875, two years before the covers first came off at the All England Club in south-west London.
And now, 139 years later, no fewer than 170 entrants to this year's Wimbledon use at least one Babolat product.
Founded by Pierre Babolat in Lyon, Babolat originally made strings for musical instruments and sausage cases from animal intestines.
Its move into tennis came after one of the pioneers of the modern game, Walter Clopton Wingfield, approached Babolat to make natural gut strings for a new sport he called "sphairistrike" (Greek for ball game).
As tennis grew in popularity in the late 19th Century, and the rules were standardised, Babolat saw sales of its strings steadily increase.
In 1925 Rene Lacoste won the French Open using a racquet strung with Babolat strings. Since then Babolat strings have won at least one Grand Slam title every year.
Business of Tennis
Today Babolat remains a family-run business, and is led by 44-year-old Eric Babolat, the great-great-grandson of founder Pierre.
Under Eric's leadership, Babolat has been transformed from a company which until 1994 only made strings, to one of the biggest names in tennis racquets, clothing and footwear.
The decision to diversify the business away from just making strings was taken by Eric's father Pierre, who introduced the company's first tennis racquet in 1994.
But tragedy struck in 1998 when Pierre was killed when Swissair Flight 111 crashed off the coast of Canada while flying from New York to Geneva.
Eric, who was 28 at the time, was thrown abruptly into running the family business.
He had been working for the company for four years by then, and while he admits that he did not feel ready, he had no hesitations about taking up the top job.
"I had no pressure except from myself," he says. "I had people around me to help me, and I wanted to continue the story."
With the main aim being to increase sales of Babolat racquets, yet with little or no money to sign up established players to start using them, Eric instead decided to continue his father's policy of giving the racquets to players on the junior circuit.
And so unknown names such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters were given free Babolat racquets.
As those "unknowns" went on to win Grand Slam after Grand Slam using Babolat racquets, the company's sales skyrocketed.
Eric used the increased revenues to further diversify the business into making clothing, shoes and accessories.
This has been so successful that last year Babolat's turnover totalled 147m euros ($201m; Â£117m), compared with 23m euros when Eric took over at the helm of the company.
Despite the big growth in sales, Babolat remains 100% family-owned, and still even makes use of the original premises in Lyon where it was founded in 1875.
Eric indicates that not having to report to shareholders or worry about a share price greatly helps the firm's research and development.
"As a family-owned company we have the luxury of time," he says. "We don't say, 'OK if it's not a success in three months we'll just forget about it.' It takes time to make things better."
Now with 350 employees, Eric adds that he considers that Babolat remains a "human-sized business", where staff are considered to be one big family.
And to maintain close ties with the professional players that use Babolat products, they are all individually invited to its headquarters in Lyon, where Eric gives them a guided tour, and introduces them to all the workers.
It is not just players who will be using Babolat products at this year's Wimbledon, though - all the ballboys and girls have been kitted out with Babolat shoes.
Eric says it is "fantastic" to attend the Grand Slam events and watch all the players using his company's products, adding that the faith they have in Babolat "is pressure, but it is a good pressure".
On whether his young children will ultimately take over the running of the company, he simply says that he wants them "to do what they love".
He certainly loves doing what he does. "My wife knows my mistress - it is the company. I think I have got the best job I could have.
"Motivation is the key to everything, so loving what you do makes the difference."


A double-decker bus has been donated to a pub to replace its vehicle that was destroyed in a fire.

The original bus was on its way to Norfolk when it was engulfed in flames on the A11 near Cambridge in July.
Eunice Jokrassett, landlady of The Crown, and other villagers in Smallburgh, Norfolk, had been fundraising for the bus since February.
It was to be turned into a library, and taken to Ms Jokrassett's home country, the Ivory Coast.
An anonymous businessman, who heard the Â£6,000 bus had gone up in flames, stepped in and donated a replacement vehicle.
The bus will be packed up with books and school equipment that had been collected by local people.
In September, it will begin its two-week journey to the Ivory Coast.
Once there, it will travel to schools in and around Abidjan.
"It's like an English resource centre, and will allow the children to learn about England, there are loads of books on board for children to learn the English language", said Ms Jokrassett.
In November, she and 20 people from Smallburgh will fly to the Ivory Coast to see the bus in use.
The original bus was destroyed after a blaze started in the engine compartment, the fire service said.


Rochdale boss Keith Hill has accused his side of having a "losing mentality" after being beaten by Shrewsbury.

Dale lost 1-0 to the relegation-threatened Shrews, leaving them ninth in League One, six points adrift of the play-offs with four games left.
Hill's team have now won just five of their 20 away games this season, compared to 12 of 19 at Spotland.
"The players have got to prove to me and the supporters that they can do it away from home," he said.
He continued to BBC Radio Manchester: "I'm dealing with players that, characteristically, support a losing mentality - especially away from home."
With the defeat effectively ending Dale's hopes of reaching the play-offs, Hill criticised his players for their approach to the match and called for improvement against Bury on Thursday evening.
"We've got four games left, players out of contract at the end of the season and we're going into a game against Bury where there's local bragging rights," he said.
"Players have got to come to me and say 'I want to play because I want to give everything. I'm not waiting until next season.' But unfortunately at this time I've got too many waiters.
"I've supported a lot of players in renewing contracts. They're playing for their futures, definitely, but I'm managing for my future. I don't want a sterile environment, I want a winning environment."


Captain Ashley Williams says Wales will thrive under the pressure of facing their World Cup qualifying group leaders Serbia in Belgrade on Sunday.

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Wales are third in Group D, four points behind Serbia and the Republic of Ireland with five games left.
Despite that gap, Williams does not believe Wales' qualifying hopes will be over if they fail to beat Serbia.
"I don't think so. We're still in a good position halfway through," said the Everton defender.
"I live for them [games like these]. As a team, we live for these nights.
"It doesn't always come off. I think we've seen that before in the past. But of late, this is the kind of game we love, when you're up against it in a different country, you're working hard and you're backing your mates up. Once you get in that groove, it's difficult to beat.
"We're very resilient and we're a gritty team. This is another opportunity for us to go out there and show our togetherness, put in a big shift and hopefully get the result we want."
The odds are stacked against Wales, who have travelled to Belgrade without a raft of first-team players.
Their talismanic forward Gareth Bale is the most notable absentee, suspended after a yellow card against the Republic of Ireland in March.
Left-back Neil Taylor is also banned, while forwards Hal Robson-Kanu and Ben Woodburn, midfielder Andy King and defender James Collins are injured.
Despite starting their campaign with victory over Moldova, Wales' bid to reach the 2018 World Cup has stalled following four successive draws against Austria, Georgia, Serbia and the Republic of Ireland.
Defeat in Belgrade in Sunday - coupled with an Irish win over Austria - would effectively end Welsh hopes of reaching next year's tournament in Russia.
Williams, however, is not entertaining such thoughts.
"It is a big game against a tough team, it's one we're preparing to win but, if we don't, we carry on because there are still games to go," the 33-year-old added.
"While there are points available, we'll try our best to go and get them.
"It will be tough. We're not planning for that [defeat]. We're playing to win but we do understand it will be a difficult game. For the last nine days, we've been working to win."


Arsene Wenger says he will definitely be managing next season, whether at Arsenal "or somewhere else".

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Wenger, 67, was speaking at the end of one of the most turbulent weeks of his two-decade tenure as Gunners boss.
After Wednesday's 5-1 Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich, several ex-players said they believed his time in charge was coming to an end.
The Frenchman's contract expires at the end of this season and he said he would decide on a new deal in March or April.
"No matter what happens I will manage for another season. Whether it's here or somewhere else, that is for sure," Wenger said on Friday.
"If I said March or April it is because I didn't know. I do not want to come back on that.
"I am used to the criticism. I think in life it's important to do what you think is right and all the rest is judgement. I am in a public job and I have to accept that, but I have to behave with my values."
Wenger, who has been in charge of Arsenal since 1996, said: "We let everyone judge and criticise, we have to deal with that. We have to bounce back, that is what life is about.
"Even if I go, Arsenal will not win every single game in the future. It is not like before I arrived Arsenal had won five times in the European Cup.
"What is important is that the club makes the right decision for the future. I care about this club and its future and it is very important the club is in safe hands.
"The main emotion is everyone has a big disappointment. We have to regroup and refocus on the next game, and to take care of the consequences a disappointing result can have on everyone's spirit.
"We have to focus on the real problems and they are the way we play football, not my future.
"It is always important not to look for wrong excuses in life."
Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004, with FA Cups in 2005, 2014 and 2015 the only major silverware Wenger has secured since.
However, he has consistently qualified for the lucrative Champions League and the club has continued to grow financially, despite the pressures of building a new stadium.
The Gunners reached the knockout stage of Europe's elite club competition for a 14th year in a row this season, but the last-16 first-leg thrashing at German champions Bayern leaves them with little hope of progressing.
The performance, coupled with earlier damaging league defeats by Chelsea and Watford, prompted several former Arsenal players - some of whom played under Wenger - to suggest his time was up.
Former Gunners captain Martin Keown described the defeat as Wenger's "lowest point", while ex-defender Lee Dixon said: "This team is getting no response from him. I've never seen him like that."
In the Premier League, they are 10 points adrift of leaders Chelsea. After the Blues beat them 3-1 on 4 February, ex-England defender Danny Mills said Arsenal "have settled for fourth again".
Earlier, former striker Ian Wright, who scored 185 goals for the club between 1991 and 1998, said he believed Wenger's time as Arsenal boss was "coming to the end", although the Frenchman later denied giving any indication of his future plans.
Meanwhile, Wenger also said defender and captain Laurent Koscielny will have a scan on the injury he suffered against Bayern.
The France international was replaced by Gabriel after limping off just after half-time, and within seven minutes Arsenal conceded twice to go 3-1 down.
The Gunners travel to National League Sutton United in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday (19:55 GMT kick-off). The match is live on BBC One.


Two campaign groups have alleged ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka continue to face torture, a year after President Maithripala Sirisena came to power promising reform.

They interviewed victims who said they were arbitrarily detained, tortured or gang raped by security forces.
The authorities denied the allegations.
Sri Lanka's long-running civil war between the government and Tamil rebels ended in 2009. Both sides were accused of committing war crimes.
South Africa-based group The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said it spoke to 15 men and five women, most of whom were former Tamil Tiger fighters or child recruits.
All said they had suffered extreme violence, in some cases gang rape, at the hands of the police or military intelligence in the past year. They have now left Sri Lanka.
The organisation said a "well-organised machine" continued to torture and repress Tamils and it was not merely a case of a few "rotten apples".
Meanwhile UK-based group Freedom From Torture said it continued to receive "a high volume of referrals" for people allegedly tortured in Sri Lanka, including under President Sirisena's government.
It said that apart from the ITJP's cases, it had spoken to seven others - all of whom were Tamil - who said they had experienced arbitrary detention and torture by Sri Lankan army or intelligence officers.
Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne dismissed the allegations of torture, saying that as far as he knew the Defence Ministry "has not got any information regarding this".
"If they have evidence please tell them to send it to us - we will investigate the case."
Army spokesman Brig Jayanath Jayweera also rejected the reports.
"Sri Lankan media would have reported if someone was abducted or tortured. The press is free to report but not a single report on any abductions or torture was reported as they claim."
Mr Sirisena took power in 8 January last year, and has pledged a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate further into claims of atrocities in the country's civil war which lasted 26 years.
In October a government-led inquiry found that there were "credible" allegations that the army had committed war crimes during the conflict with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Last month Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera announced that the government had signed an international convention banning abductions by the state or political organisations, and pledged the protection of human rights.
About 70% of Sri Lanka's population is Sinhalese Buddhist majority but it has a significant Tamil minority.


A £28m art gallery plagued by falling visitor numbers is considering displaying world-famous art to boost attendance.

Firstsite gallery in Colchester, Essex, is set to lose £500,000 this financial year despite two injections of funding.
Interim director Anthony Roberts admitted the gallery "hadn't really found its voice" since opening in 2011.
Among ideas being considered to draw in crowds are plans to display works such as Rodin's The Kiss.
Firstsite was one of two projects across England to be placed under a special funding agreement by Arts Council England earlier this year.
Managers must show an improvement in visitor numbers or face losing funding altogether.
"It's a big challenge," Mr Roberts said. "Despite the really hard work, it hasn't really managed to connect. And no-one's particularly to blame for that - it's a misfiring of energy and work."
But he said, since he had taken on the interim post in April, visitor numbers had increased by 25% between May and June.
'The Golden Banana'
Documents obtained by BBC Essex using a Freedom of Information request show since 2009, the East of England has received the lowest amount of Arts Council funding of anywhere in England.
The documents also revealed ideas considered during an emergency planning workshop to make the gallery more appealing.
Changing the gallery's name was mooted as a possibility, but Mr Roberts said he personally had "very warm feelings" towards its current moniker.
"I'm working my very hardest to rattle the turnstiles, to bring people in, to put a smile on people's faces, to make Colchester proud and happy and comfortable in this beautiful international building," he said.


Former Glamorgan coach John Derrick has tipped all-rounder Craig Meschede to be the county's next England player.

Meschede, 24, has targeted a place in the second-string England Lions team since joining Glamorgan from Somerset.
But Derrick feels the South Africa-born player, who was on loan with the Welsh county in 2015, can aim higher.
"He could be the next guy from Glamorgan that actually plays for England in any sort of cricket. I liked what I saw last year," said Derrick.
Meschede played in all but one of Glamorgan's matches while on loan last season, across all three formats, scoring 655 runs in first-class cricket and claiming 43 wickets.
He hit the headlines by claiming the wicket of Kevin Pietersen on the former England batsman's county comeback.
But Derrick, who left as Glamorgan coach in November, 2006, believes the Welsh county did not make the most of Meschede's talents.
Fast bowler Simon Jones was Glamorgan's last England player, memorably helping them to win the 2005 Ashes series against Australia.
But Alex Wharf was the last Glamorgan player to play international limited-overs cricket and Derrick sees Meschede as filling a similar role for England.
"Glamorgan started a couple of games with him opening up in T20 stuff," said Derrick.
"But I would have persevered with that and I think looking back to someone like when Wharfy got into that England side and he batted at three and bowled a heavy ball.
"And someone like Meschede can probably look to follow that.
"So I think that's a very, very good signing for Glamorgan and if I was a betting man I think he would be the one I would be looking at to push on for England honours in the next couple of years."