UK Parliament / Open data

Postal Services Bill

Debate on bills on Wednesday, 27 October 2010, in the House of Commons, led by Vincent Cable. The answering member was John Denham.
Postal Services Bill. Second reading debate. Agreed on division (321 to 238). Programme motion relating to proceedings in public bill committee, consideration and third reading, and Lords amendments agreed on question. Money resolution agreed on question. Ways and means resolution agreed on question.

About these Parliamentary proceedings

Reference

517 c346-433 

Session

2010-12

Department

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Legislative stage

Second reading

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Related items

Postal Services Bill. Explanatory notes also published (Bill 78-EN).
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Bills
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Jonathan Lord | 517 c379-80 (Link to this contribution) I had hoped to make my maiden speech last Friday on my private Member's Bill, to pay homage in some ...
Speaker | 517 c371 (Link to this contribution) Order. Many Members wish to speak, and I remind them that Mr Speaker has decided to impose a six-min...

Show all contributions (233)
David Anderson | 517 c392 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Glenda Jackson | 517 c389-90 (Link to this contribution) With all due respect to the hon. Gentleman, his Secretary of State stood at the Dispatch Box and gav...
Jesse Norman | 517 c389 (Link to this contribution) As it is true that no Parliament can bind its successors, and as we have in legislation a clear stat...
Chris Evans | 517 c391 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not think that the best thing would be to offer Royal Mail a mutualisation, ...
Chris White | 517 c391 (Link to this contribution) Even after listening to the previous speaker, I think that we all share the same view, which is that...
Fiona O'Donnell | 517 c388 (Link to this contribution) Would the hon. Gentleman like to consider the deregulation of bus services, which has not led to an ...
Glenda Jackson | 517 c389 (Link to this contribution) Earlier today I passed a lobby outside the House, whose protagonists were carrying placards that bor...
Alan Reid | 517 c382 (Link to this contribution) The Bill mentions, in clause 30:"““At least one delivery of letters every Monday to Saturday…to the ...
Mike Weir | 517 c382 (Link to this contribution) I remind the hon. Gentleman that in the summer his Business Secretary said that the service might go...
Mike Weir | 517 c382 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way again; time is getting on. I pointed out in an intervention that the chief exe...
Speaker | 517 c382-3 (Link to this contribution) Order. Time is up. [Interruption.] Will the hon. Gentleman resume his seat? I ask Members to stick t...
John Pugh | 517 c383-4 (Link to this contribution) The powers that be in the Whips Office approached me last week to ask whether I would like to speak ...
Mike Weir | 517 c380-2 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Woking (Jonathan Lord) on making his maiden speech. I have been t...
Speaker | 517 c380 (Link to this contribution) Order. I am sorry, but the hon. Member's time is up.
Mike Weir | 517 c382 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. Let me quote one of the myths in the leaflet:"““Growth in parcels from online shopping will ...
Adrian Bailey | 517 c386-7 (Link to this contribution) Certainly John Lewis did that, but he did not just hand it over—there was a process by which he asce...
Andrew Stephenson | 517 c387-8 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Second Reading of the Bill and what the Secretary of State has said, which has helped ...
Adrian Bailey | 517 c386 (Link to this contribution) I do not recall anybody saying that post offices had gone through a halcyon period, but under the la...
John Pugh | 517 c384-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is assuming that the Bill is totally finished business. If he has amendments that...
Jack Dromey | 517 c384 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that there is nothing in the Bill that would prevent owners...
Damian Collins | 517 c386 (Link to this contribution) Listening to the hon. Gentleman's remarks, one might think that the post office network has gone thr...
Adrian Bailey | 517 c386 (Link to this contribution) Exactly. That will be one of the determining factors in whether post office sub-postmasters and othe...
Chris Evans | 517 c386 (Link to this contribution) I hear what my hon. Friend says. Does he not agree that for a mutual to be successful, it needs to h...
Adrian Bailey | 517 c385-6 (Link to this contribution) I start with a declaration of interest. I am a Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament, with an...
Nicholas Brown | 517 c373-5 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley), and I strongly agree w...
Brian Binley | 517 c372-3 (Link to this contribution) I had the distinction—perhaps that is not the best word—of meeting the chief executive in question, ...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 517 c375 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Bill, which largely represents the policy that the Liberal Democrats went into the gen...
Michael Connarty | 517 c372 (Link to this contribution) I just wonder where the hon. Gentleman has been. I happen to be secretary of the communication worke...
Brian Binley | 517 c372 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend was a wise prophet in a House that failed to listen to him, and that is a great pity....
Jim Cunningham | 517 c372 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will recall, as I do, that the previous chief executive of the Roy...
Brian Binley | 517 c372 (Link to this contribution) I understand the hon. Gentleman's concerns. When I talked about senior management, I meant very seni...
Brian Binley | 517 c371 (Link to this contribution) It is absolutely bust! In fact, the previous Government recognised that and tried to enact a Bill, b...
Edward Leigh | 517 c371 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that if I had been allowed to privatise the Post Office when I was the Min...
Baroness Hoey | 517 c377-9 (Link to this contribution) I feel like saying, ““Here we go again””, because in my time in Parliament we have been through thre...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 517 c377 (Link to this contribution) No, sorry. Royal Mail is currently hamstrung by regulations that make it uncompetitive against outsi...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 517 c376-7 (Link to this contribution) I cannot take any more interventions. I am sorry. The point is that 90% of Royal Mail will become a...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 517 c376 (Link to this contribution) We have already had the announcements of the Secretary of State, which have covered the point that t...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 517 c375 (Link to this contribution) I wholeheartedly endorse the comments of my hon. Friend. We know that mutualisation of the Post Off...
Michael Connarty | 517 c376 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady is moving on from mutualisation of the post office network. I thought she might ask th...
Sarah Newton | 517 c375 (Link to this contribution) On that point, I echo the warm welcome that my hon. Friend has given to the Bill. In the remote rura...
Speaker | 517 c375 (Link to this contribution) Order. This is not a speech; this is an intervention. It is supposed to be brief.
Richard Graham | 517 c366 (Link to this contribution) Is the right hon. Gentleman aware how much investment the German post office has had in the past few...
John Denham | 517 c364-6 (Link to this contribution) All EU directives should always be examined very carefully as a matter of principle. There is perhap...
Marcus Jones | 517 c366 (Link to this contribution) What share of Royal Mail does the right hon. Gentleman think should be sold?
John Denham | 517 c366 (Link to this contribution) Richard Hooper's point, which I do not fundamentally contest, is that additional access to capital i...
John Denham | 517 c366-7 (Link to this contribution) The previous Labour Government floated proposals for the sale of a minority stake. Given the changes...
Jim Cunningham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) I remember the privatisation of Rolls-Royce. The employees were given shares, but rapidly sold them....
John Denham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) I understand my hon. Friend's point, but the Opposition should explore positively, including in disc...
John Denham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) Clearly, any measure that allowed that kind of swift onward sale, resulting essentially in 100% priv...
Baroness Hoey | 517 c364 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend has mentioned a number of issues, but he has not drawn attention to the EU dire...
John Denham | 517 c368 (Link to this contribution) I have seen that letter, and I will refer to it a little later, if I may.
John Denham | 517 c367-8 (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I will happily take another intervention from him when I come to ...
Jim Cunningham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Brian Binley | 517 c371 (Link to this contribution) The House needs to recognise that the Post Office is a bust flush—
John Denham | 517 c368-71 (Link to this contribution) That is certainly a real risk, and my hon. Friend is absolutely right. I return to the point that I ...
Michael Connarty | 517 c368 (Link to this contribution) Is my right hon. Friend aware that in previous discussions about possible privatisations, no interes...
John Pugh | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman makes a rational and intelligent case, but if the Bill proposed a majority ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c361 (Link to this contribution) We cannot do it in that way. Of course, other companies have access to the market, subject to strict...
Robert Halfon | 517 c361 (Link to this contribution) I very much welcome the reforms that the Secretary of State has announced today and the commitment t...
Vincent Cable | 517 c360 (Link to this contribution) It is a solution on which I hope that Members in all parts of the House can agree, including the rig...
Malcolm Wicks | 517 c360 (Link to this contribution) On the pension issue, which is so crucial, Labour Members will want to scrutinise the plan and the i...
Vincent Cable | 517 c360 (Link to this contribution) I understand that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary is very familiar with this and has spent a lot ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c358-60 (Link to this contribution) Yes, it is true, but the liabilities are much bigger. I shall explain in a moment how we will deal w...
David Anderson | 517 c360 (Link to this contribution) Can the Secretary of State explain why the liabilities are so huge? Is part of the reason the fact t...
Robert Smith | 517 c363 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman talks about Royal Mail being owned in the national interest and about profi...
John Denham | 517 c363-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may have a point about the use of those profits, but I would rather they went to ...
Andrew George | 517 c362 (Link to this contribution) I am much reassured by what the Secretary of State is saying. Further to my earlier intervention, I ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c362-3 (Link to this contribution) I believe I have given my hon. Friend that reassurance. Royal Mail will not subsidise its competitor...
John Denham | 517 c363 (Link to this contribution) For more than 350 years, the Royal Mail has delivered the post to homes and businesses across the Un...
Vincent Cable | 517 c361-2 (Link to this contribution) I am not making these commitments as political commitments. They are enshrined in regulation—regulat...
Vincent Cable | 517 c362 (Link to this contribution) I will take one more intervention and then move to a conclusion.
Jim Cunningham | 517 c358 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Vincent Cable | 517 c358 (Link to this contribution) I am going to go on to explain the new mechanism. Would the hon. Gentleman like to wait until I reac...
Malcolm Wicks | 517 c356 (Link to this contribution) For a range of reasons, there is a widespread acceptance that Royal Mail has to modernise. That shou...
Vincent Cable | 517 c356 (Link to this contribution) That has been happening for 13 years and it has not solved the problem. The problem is deteriorating...
Roger Gale | 517 c356 (Link to this contribution) I shall support Second Reading because Royal Mail is broke. It has to be fixed, which will take a co...
Baroness Hoey | 517 c357 (Link to this contribution) One depot that has been suggested for closure is the very large one at Nine Elms in Vauxhall. There ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c357-8 (Link to this contribution) I am not familiar with the details of the argument in that case. I was referring to the fact that th...
Michael Connarty | 517 c415-6 (Link to this contribution) I declare an interest, as I have worked with the Scottish branch of the National Federation of SubPo...
Jesse Norman | 517 c417-8 (Link to this contribution) I have two great interests in the Bill. I speak as chair of the all-party group on employee ownershi...
Michael Connarty | 517 c416-7 (Link to this contribution) I will take no interventions, as many Members wish to speak and I want to take just six minutes. Th...
Chris Evans | 517 c418-9 (Link to this contribution) I know that time is short, so I will be as quick as I can. I apologise to any Member if they cannot ...
Speaker | 517 c418 (Link to this contribution) To resume his seat at 6.30, Mr Chris Evans.
Nia Griffith | 517 c419 (Link to this contribution) I am very sorry to have to say this, Mr Deputy Speaker, but my name is pronounced ““Nee-ah Griffith....
Speaker | 517 c419 (Link to this contribution) Order. A couple of Members have sat here throughout the debate but, unfortunately, were not called. ...
Gregg McClymont | 517 c412-4 (Link to this contribution) It was enlightening to discover that the father of the hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) was a su...
Julian Sturdy | 517 c414-5 (Link to this contribution) Before us today is a truly national piece of legislation. Our postal service is a cornerstone of Bri...
Nia Griffith | 517 c422 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps if the hon. Gentleman had been here earlier, he might have heard some information that would...
Nick Boles | 517 c422 (Link to this contribution) Would the hon. Lady like to tell us the answer to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member fo...
Nia Griffith | 517 c421 (Link to this contribution) I can certainly remind the hon. Gentleman that a viable post office network consists of some 4,000 p...
Brian Binley | 517 c423 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend correct a mistake that he has made? I asked him to explain how he was going to g...
Ed Davey | 517 c422-3 (Link to this contribution) I start by thanking the hon. Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith), and all the other hon. Members, for...
Nia Griffith | 517 c422 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way; I wish to return to discussing today's announcement about the money, becaus...
Nia Griffith | 517 c420-1 (Link to this contribution) Thank you. Today we have been debating a Bill that will lead to the sale of Royal Mail. Many Member...
Andrew Griffiths | 517 c421 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady talks about closures in the post office network on an ““unprecedented scale””, but cou...
Speaker | 517 c420 (Link to this contribution) A Welshman getting it wrong! I do apologise.
Speaker | 517 c427 (Link to this contribution) Order. I cannot hear the Minister, which means that the House cannot hear him either. The Minister m...
Ed Davey | 517 c426-7 (Link to this contribution) Unlike the hon. Gentleman's Government, we do not wish up new pots of money left, right and centre. ...
Ed Davey | 517 c427-8 (Link to this contribution) In 1997, Royal Mail was a company that could hold its own with most postal administrations around th...
Ed Davey | 517 c423-5 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has corrected the record, and I can say that we have that good management with Moya G...
Ed Davey | 517 c425-6 (Link to this contribution) No, I am sorry. My hon. Friend the Member for Solihull (Lorely Burt) raised concerns about the cond...
John Denham | 517 c426 (Link to this contribution) We look forward to hearing the more detailed statement. Will the Minister confirm that his Departmen...
Mike Weir | 517 c396 (Link to this contribution) The point I was making is that we have a six-day service now, that the Bill guarantees only a five-d...
Alan Reid | 517 c396 (Link to this contribution) The Bill requires"““At least one delivery of letters every Monday to Saturday—""(a) to the home or p...
Sharon Hodgson | 517 c397-8 (Link to this contribution) I do agree. A lot of things that we now take for granted would be under threat, including that. Sev...
Richard Graham | 517 c398 (Link to this contribution) I am conscious that we all come to this debate with our own scars of individual experience. Mine cam...
Jim Shannon | 517 c397 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady agree that our current six-day service, with the delivery tomorrow of first-class...
Jake Berry | 517 c399 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the best way of bringing such investment into the company is this pri...
Richard Graham | 517 c399-400 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I think that he, like me, would support the new chief ex...
Jesse Norman | 517 c398 (Link to this contribution) Is it not fair to say that the Government are making an attempt in very good faith to reshape the co...
Richard Graham | 517 c398-9 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and what he describes is precisely why he and I welcome what the...
Speaker | 517 c400 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I gently remind hon. Members that there are still 16 Members who would like to speak in t...
Tom Blenkinsop | 517 c400 (Link to this contribution) I want to pose questions to the Government and to make some points, several of which have already be...
Neil Carmichael | 517 c400 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Tom Blenkinsop | 517 c400-1 (Link to this contribution) I would normally, but I am pressed for time. Liberalisation is often introduced piecemeal, with the...
Chris Evans | 517 c401 (Link to this contribution) Like me, my hon. Friend is a former trade union official. He knows that—
Speaker | 517 c401 (Link to this contribution) Order. This is not a conversation.
Chris Evans | 517 c401 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend knows that TNT has a terrible track record on employee relations. If it takes over Ro...
Tom Blenkinsop | 517 c401 (Link to this contribution) As a former trade union official, who often likes to stand and cannot normally sit down, I agree wit...
David Anderson | 517 c401 (Link to this contribution) The rigours of the private sector.
Tom Blenkinsop | 517 c401-2 (Link to this contribution) Exactly. In Germany, only 18% of the jobs created by Deutsche Post's competitors are full time. Deu...
Robert Buckland | 517 c403 (Link to this contribution) I cannot let that comment pass. This is not some ideological crusade; it is about trying to create a...
David Anderson | 517 c403-4 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman mentions the work force because I can now ask him, if he believ...
Rebecca Harris | 517 c403 (Link to this contribution) I was not here at that time, but it is an interesting historical observation. My constituents, like...
David Anderson | 517 c403 (Link to this contribution) What we have seen today is the Liberal Democrats covering for the long-term view of the Conservative...
Rebecca Harris | 517 c403 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that interesting observation.
David Anderson | 517 c403 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady accept that more post offices closed in the years before the Labour Government th...
Anna Soubry | 517 c404 (Link to this contribution) In my constituency there are 700 postal workers at the Beeston sorting office. To my knowledge, not ...
Robert Halfon | 517 c404 (Link to this contribution) It seems that clause IV is alive and well in the Labour party. According to the hon. Gentleman's log...
Russell Brown | 517 c407-8 (Link to this contribution) I apologise to the House for being absent this afternoon. When I applied to the Speaker to take part...
Jake Berry | 517 c408-9 (Link to this contribution) Today's debate has been very interesting. I will set out—briefly, because time is short—the reasons ...
Speaker | 517 c411 (Link to this contribution) Order. There is half an hour left and eight Members are trying to catch my eye. If everybody shows r...
David Anderson | 517 c405 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the hon. Gentleman's view; perhaps he would like to join us. A number of us on the Labour ...
Damian Collins | 517 c405 (Link to this contribution) Following the remarks of the hon. Member for Angus (Mr Weir) much earlier in the debate, I begin by ...
Thomas Docherty | 517 c405 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that one of the great lessons of the privatised utilities is that non...
Damian Collins | 517 c405-6 (Link to this contribution) I can speak only from my own experience, having previously worked in the advertising industry, where...
Priti Patel | 517 c411-2 (Link to this contribution) I will show some restraint, Mr Deputy Speaker. I should declare an interest. I am not a member of t...
Alan Reid | 517 c396 (Link to this contribution) Very briefly, because I will not get an extra minute, as the hon. Gentleman did following my interve...
Chris Evans | 517 c395 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Alan Reid | 517 c395 (Link to this contribution) Those are completely different examples. If the question arose in the hon. Gentleman's constituency ...
Mike Weir | 517 c396 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Alan Reid | 517 c395-6 (Link to this contribution) No. I am afraid that I have already taken the two interventions that I am allowed. The Post Office ...
Jim Shannon | 517 c394 (Link to this contribution) One of the proposals involves the returned letter centre in Belfast, which employs 26 people. It is ...
Alan Reid | 517 c394 (Link to this contribution) I represent a constituency with many small, remote communities, including many islands. Clearly, Roy...
David Anderson | 517 c394 (Link to this contribution) Would the hon. Gentleman apply the same logic to other parts of the public sector such as the health...
Alan Reid | 517 c394 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that I do not know the details of what is happening to Royal Mail services in Belfast, s...
Pat McFadden | 517 c392-4 (Link to this contribution) We have had many debates on post offices and Royal Mail in the House over the years, and we have oft...
Vincent Cable | 517 c352-3 (Link to this contribution) I will take interventions at the end of the next section of my speech. I have already given the hon....
Julian Huppert | 517 c353 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend share my sheer joy and satisfaction both about the money and about the ide...
Vincent Cable | 517 c353 (Link to this contribution) Yes, indeed. That is the outcome. For the past decade I and many on the Opposition Benches have been...
Huw Irranca-Davies | 517 c353 (Link to this contribution) On that very point. I am grateful for the clarity of the right hon. Gentleman's response, although t...
Vincent Cable | 517 c353 (Link to this contribution) I am surprised to hear Opposition Members speaking against mutualisation and co-operation. I thought...
Huw Irranca-Davies | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The right hon. Gentleman is spraying around statistics of po...
Speaker | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) Let us clear this up. We both know that that is not a point of order. Many hon. Members want to spea...
John Hemming | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) On the issue of the individual, private, sub-contracted post offices, does my right hon. Friend find...
Vincent Cable | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) I will take one more intervention.
Vincent Cable | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) Yes. Labour Members seem to find the concept of an expanding, properly invested post office system a...
Vincent Cable | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) The Royal Mail and the Post Office are different businesses and they require fundamentally different...
Adrian Bailey | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has made slightly contradictory statements. First, he said he was consulting ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) We are asking Co-operatives UK to give us advice. The hon. Gentleman is very close to the co-operati...
Vincent Cable | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) I have taken a substantial number of interventions and I want to proceed. I know that these proposa...
John Redwood | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State. Do I assume that he is talking about mutualising the Crown ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) I assure my hon. Friend that will be the case. My colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Busines...
Huw Irranca-Davies | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Vincent Cable | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) I shall take one more intervention before I move on.
Huw Irranca-Davies | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way; I do not know why he was so reluctant to take my qu...
Andrew George | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State will be aware that people in west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are reassu...
Vincent Cable | 517 c351 (Link to this contribution) It could be either, or a combination of the two. That is why we have turned to the Co-operative Grou...
David Anderson | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) May I point out to the right hon. Gentleman that for more than a century a number of Labour Members ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right to say that this is not an ideological question. I shall come to the sha...
Mark Hendrick | 517 c351 (Link to this contribution) Can the right hon. Gentleman tell me whether any thought has been given as to whether that would be ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c351 (Link to this contribution) Is that the voice of heritage Labour—at last? Let me summarise the substance of the Bill. As the di...
Vincent Cable | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil).
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) My constituents in the outer Hebrides want to know what the service will look like for customers in ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c350 (Link to this contribution) We are providing a framework in which a sale could take place and we are not setting timetables or l...
Sandra Osborne | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) I shall save the right hon. Gentleman some trouble by telling him that I lost 11 post offices and ga...
Vincent Cable | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman might want to correct the official record if that is the case. Let me explain wh...
Speaker | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) That is not a point of order, but the hon. Gentleman has certainly made a point of clarification.
Russell Brown | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I merely want to put the record straight. The Secretary of S...
Vincent Cable | 517 c349 (Link to this contribution) As I reminded hon. Members a few moments ago, customers in the Hebrides have experienced a decline. ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c347 (Link to this contribution) I shall come to the argument for not restricting private investment access in a moment. The simple p...
Vincent Cable | 517 c347 (Link to this contribution) If hon. Members want to make the same point, there is no point in pursuing their interventions, but ...
Baroness Hoey | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) If everything that the previous Government wanted to do was so good—and many Opposition Members oppo...
Vincent Cable | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) I shall take the hon. Lady through the arguments step by step, but the situation has deteriorated ba...
Vincent Cable | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) I shall take further interventions later but I want to proceed with the next step of the argument. ...
Russell Brown | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate that the right hon. Gentleman now finds himself in coalition with the Conservatives. Th...
Vincent Cable | 517 c348 (Link to this contribution) I shall address the pension proposals in some detail. They are virtually identical to what the previ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c346 (Link to this contribution) The amendment to which my right hon. Friend has referred was tabled by the nationalists rather than ...
Mike Weir | 517 c346 (Link to this contribution) It will be interesting to hear what the right hon. Gentleman has to say. The National Federation of ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c346 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. Let me begin by making it clear why we are ...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 517 c346 (Link to this contribution) We know that the previous Government tried unsuccessfully to privatise the Post Office. Does my righ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c347 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady's colleagues in the previous Government would have answered that question for her, bec...
Emily Thornberry | 517 c347 (Link to this contribution) May I make the point that the pension needs to be sorted out, sale or no sale, that regulation needs...
Vincent Cable | 517 c346 (Link to this contribution) I will address the matters that the hon. Gentleman has described in detail. I remember him campaigni...
Emily Thornberry | 517 c347 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman may be aware that my constituency includes the second largest sorting offic...
Vincent Cable | 517 c355-6 (Link to this contribution) I will finish this section, then I will take the intervention from the right hon. Gentleman, who I k...
Vincent Cable | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) As I say, investment capital availability ultimately comes down to the individual decision of indivi...
Tom Brake | 517 c354 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend believe that he has created enough scope for post offices such as the one ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c354-5 (Link to this contribution) I will press on. The hon. Gentleman has had his say. In addition to funding, we are injecting new i...
Vincent Cable | 517 c355 (Link to this contribution) No. The relationship between Royal Mail and the Post Office rests on two things—first, on mutual int...
Julie Hilling | 517 c355 (Link to this contribution) I am slightly confused by what the right hon. Gentleman has said. First, will all post offices remai...
Vincent Cable | 517 c355 (Link to this contribution) Obviously, such detailed matters will need to be resolved as the process of separation continues. It...
John Redwood | 517 c355 (Link to this contribution) Where the property is shared between the Post Office and Royal Mail, as it is in a number of importa...
Chris White | 517 c391-2 (Link to this contribution) No, I think that the offer as it stands is sensible and practical, although as I have said, it would...
Chris White | 517 c392 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, but I will continue if I may. A good postal service and a strong network of post office...
Jesse Norman | 517 c386 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that it is impossible to create mutuals from a transfer, but is it not the c...
Jim Cunningham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) It does not take long for employees to sell their shares, so selling shares to employees would creat...
Mike Weir | 517 c368 (Link to this contribution) I am listening carefully to the right hon. Gentleman and agree with a lot of what he says. He mentio...
John Denham | 517 c367 (Link to this contribution) That is an important point. If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will return in a moment to how ...
Vincent Cable | 517 c360-1 (Link to this contribution) Of course it does need to be done anyway, but as I explained a few moments ago, the key point about ...
Jim Cunningham | 517 c358 (Link to this contribution) On pensions, what will happen to the assets, and what is their value? I am told that the pension pla...
Glenda Jackson | 517 c361 (Link to this contribution) Earlier, the Secretary of State said that one of the central issues in the modernisation and advance...
Vincent Cable | 517 c356-7 (Link to this contribution) We certainly do not have any doctrinal or other objections to foreign ownership. I spend a lot of my...
Sharon Hodgson | 517 c396-7 (Link to this contribution) Reform of the UK's postal services was in the manifesto of both the Conservative party and the Liber...
Albert Owen | 517 c351 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman talks about a mutual for the Post Office, but has he looked at a mutual or ...
Andrew Stephenson | 517 c388-9 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady for that point. I believe that we need to get the right balance in regulation ...
Speaker | 517 c363 (Link to this contribution) I inform the House that Mr Speaker has not selected the amendment.
Rebecca Harris | 517 c402-3 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, as the future of the postal service is a ...
David Anderson | 517 c404 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. If she would like to meet me outside in the Lobby, I wil...
Stella Creasy | 517 c409-11 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate about the future of our postal services. I...
John Redwood | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Vincent Cable | 517 c352 (Link to this contribution) Individual post offices are of course self-managed, but they operate within Post Office Ltd. It is t...

Subjects

Closures
Cooperatives
Privatisation
Workplace pensions
Redundancy
Post offices
Pension funds
Postal services
Post Office
Standards
Regulation
Subsidies
Royal Mail

Legislation

Postal Services Bill 2010-12

Link

View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk
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