Postal Services

Ed Davey Excerpts

Thursday 24th June 2010 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)]

The Government believe that unless we take the right steps Royal Mail risks being laid low by falling mail volumes, low investment and its huge pension deficit.

To address these challenges, we propose to introduce a Bill in the first Session of this Parliament that will help modernise the Royal Mail, in partnership with employees, and ensure that the company benefits from private sector capital and disciplines.

We believe that the recommendations and analysis in Richard Hooper’s report on the maintenance of the universal postal service in the UK published in December 2008 are still broadly valid today, but as our policy develops we want to be able to test it against current market conditions. I have, therefore, asked Richard Hooper to update his report.

The terms of reference for Richard Hooper’s update are:

To consider developments in the postal sector and Royal Mail since the publication of the review’s final report.

To test whether the underlying issues which threatened the maintenance of the universal postal service remain.

To consider whether the recommendations in the report still provide the best solutions to maintaining the universal service.

I have asked him to let the Government have his initial views in the summer and he will publish a fuller update by early autumn.