"On 8 July last year, my predecessor announced the Government’s intention to launch a redress scheme for postmasters’ family members who were most severely affected by the Horizon scandal. This statement provides further information to the House about the scheme’s form, scope and eligibility criteria. While the scheme remains focused …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) for securing today’s important debate. He spoke about falling confidence in Royal Mail. I think the debate has shown that there is growing anger about failures of …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"Seriously, though, it is galling that Royal Mail is increasing the price of its services but is not meeting delivery targets. Our constituents rightly expect that, if they are paying more, they should get the service and deliveries on time. It is simply not good enough...." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"I will happily look at that. It is another example of a service that is simply not good enough.
As was mentioned, I recently met Royal Mail’s chief executive to press these issues directly. He was left in no doubt about the level of anger and concern across the House, …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"Obviously, part of ensuring that the obligations around postal votes are maintained is making sure that the resource is there on the ground to do that. Another part of it is also the prioritisation of postal votes within the service. There are existing structures for that, such as doing sweeps …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"Our focus at the moment is on getting the business on to a sustainable footing. That is about the negotiations on the very terms and conditions that my hon. Friend raises. As I mentioned, Ofcom has put on notice those other parcel providers. That is primarily about the poor quality …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"I certainly will, Sir John. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. It is also a privilege to respond to a debate with so many passionate and proud speeches on behalf of local community enterprises and charities.
"My hon. Friend makes an important point. We are having a wider conversation at the moment about how enterprise education in general should go through people’s experience in school, and the co-operative and social interest models should be part of that.
"My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Co-operatives create a really important sense of connection at a time when people feel disconnected, but co-ops and mutuals are also more resilient and more productive. That is why we have made the commitment she references. Our call for evidence has closed, and we …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech
"My office manager lives in Dargavel Village, so I have a person incentive to ensure that the service improves in the area my hon. Friend represents. We spoke about it yesterday; we have called in Royal Mail, we have brought together unions and management and we had a meeting yesterday …..." Blair McDougall - View Speech