Royal Mail and the Post Office

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, with which I agree. To use a horrible analogy, it has been all pain and no gain. It is about time we considered whether something could be turned on its head, so that we could see some gain and a bit less pain. The second purpose of the legislation was to try to restore—dare I say to refine?—the definition of the universal service obligation. We spent a lot of time trying to make it clear in the legislation that there was such a thing as a USO and that the Post Office was largely responsible for delivering it but would be protected in so doing. I contend that the USO is more under attack now than ever before—zonal pricing is an obvious example of that—and, more particularly, that we have not been able to protect the Post Office and Royal Mail. Foreign competitors and other major carriers came in below the radar and took away business that, fairly, should be with the Post Office. It is the lack of fairness and the lack of a level playing field that I wish mainly to mention. On the USO, the Minister's predecessor stated clearly that the Government were looking again to try to identify whether other major national carriers—international, because they come from abroad, but national in the sense that they have a significant share of the market in this country—should now contribute to the USO. That clear statement, which said that we as a Government were considering whether those other carriers could contribute to the USO, has been restated in answers to parliamentary questions. It would be good to hear the Minister say that progress is being made on that issue and that some announcement is, to use Government language, imminent. It is about time that we expected those who are, by every definition, a national carrier to have an obligation under the USO and that we stopped exploiting the British Post Office by making it deliver the last mile in return for negligible commitment and contribution. Ergo, why should they not pay towards the USO? I hope that we will hear something interesting from the Minister. Just to show the depth of the problem that we face, I shall read from the introductory remarks in the report by Hooper, Hutton and Smith. Hon. Members should remember that this interim report is posing the challenge and is not coming up with any answers at the moment: it is long on analysis but contains few answers. On the next steps, page 7 says:"““There is now a substantial threat to Royal Mail's financial stability and, therefore, the universal service. We have come to the conclusion, based on evidence submitted so far, that the status quo is not tenable. It will not deliver our shared vision for the postal sector.""There is a strong case for action. The policies needed to establish a sustainable future will be the focus of our report later this year.””" Three wise people are looking into this matter. I welcome Parliament's being part of that process, because at the moment nothing matters more to our constituents than postal services, whether in respect of shutting post offices, the lateness of the mail, the deterioration in mail delivery or this most loved institution's now being regarded more under attack than ever before. It would be good to get some idea from the Minister about the time scale that the three wise people are working to and what authority they have to come up with solutions, which we welcome. All hon. Members could come up with the headings used in the review—profitability, pricing, efficiency, access to capital, pensions, labour relations, regulation, competition and financial outlook—but it is good that we have that analysis. I like the report, because it is short and readable, and we can dwell on what it is trying to say, even though it is just a framework. More than anything, the three wise people are demanding a new vision. If someone were to ask me what is the vision for the Post Office and Royal Mail, I would not know, apart from its being one of closure and despair. That cannot be right. We have taken the most loved, most trusted and, until recently, the most used institution and turned it into a big question mark. I could blame my own Government for that, but the problem is deeper and has gone on through the generations. The British public have to accept their responsibility: every e-mail they send to a Member of Parliament is a letter not sent through the postal service. We are all responsible for all the changes.