Royal Mail and the Post Office

I agree, and I hope that that will be the saving grace in relation to the POCA. We have not only lost TV licences; I was horrified to discover from the Post Office that 1 million people licensed their vehicles on the internet in November. I thought that figure horrendous. Not only did 1 million people do that in November, but 1 million people did it in December, in January and in February. Are we to say, ““No, you cannot do that. You must go to your post office.””? I do not think that the general public will like us if we do that, as we all regularly conduct our business in that way. The POCA is vital, because of the footfall it brings— 4 million customers. I do not know what other colleagues who are present have done, but I tell hon. Members on both sides of the House that I took a small delegation of my hon. Friends to meet my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Mr. Plaskitt), who will consider and ultimately sign off the decision. So, he has already received a delegation making the case that this is about more than just providing a service—it is about the ability to provide a good-quality service on a daily basis. We are all saying that the POCA might be a saving grace, but that will be in the short term, because the Post Office is not looking to sustain it much beyond the middle of the next decade. However, it would undoubtedly help if we secured that business. The Minister was asked whether he can guarantee that there will be no more closures, but I suspect that if we do not secure the POCA for the next round, there will be something much worse than the 2,500 post office closures that we are currently going through. On the bright side, there are a few positive aspects. The Government continue to put significant sums of money into supporting the network. The Post Office is at the top of the premier league, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud put it, for bureaux de change and new drivers who are seeking car insurance for the first time. It is expanding financial services, but, regrettably, as it is rolling them out, the pressure on financial services and the credit crunch are impinging on its business in a different way. Last week, I, too, attended the report-back by Richard Hooper and his team. There is much for us all to do, and it is not just up to that team to come forward with ideas. There is a duty on us all to come forward with our own thoughts. The delivery of a Post Office network in our communities needs to be done through innovative methods such as outreach and partnership working. We cannot continue to deliver a post office network in 2008 and beyond in the same way that we delivered it 30 or 40 years ago. It has to change if it is to survive.