Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Monday 27th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Tim Loughton]

I will give my hon. Friend the same answer that I have just given to my hon. Friend the Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson)—I am not going to pre-empt what the consultation will come up with. When this matter was discussed as part of the then Children, Schools and Familes Bill before the last election, a major consideration of many Conservative Members was that the power of parents to withdraw their children from sex education should remain if they saw fit. I would hope that the quality of sex education would be such that parents would not withdraw their children because they wanted to ensure that they were well informed and confident to make the right choices.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

15. What recent assessment he has made of the breadth and content of the school curriculum; and if he will make a statement.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

The Government are currently reviewing the national curriculum to make sure it is as rigorous as the curricula used in the most successful education jurisdictions in the world. We are, as part of that work, considering which subjects should be included in the national curriculum and the content of what is taught in those subjects. However, we are clear that, whatever the outcome of the review, all schools should teach a broad and balanced curriculum.

[Hugh Bayley]

It was at the end of 2010 that I wrote to the Minister of State to urge on him the importance of teaching foreign languages at key stage 2 in primary schools. What have the Government done since then to encourage foreign language teaching to primary school children, and when does he think that the national curriculum authority will make a decision on the matter?

[Mr Gibb]

Those issues are being addressed in the review, and we will report on decisions as and when they are made. The introduction of the English baccalaureate, however, has done more to encourage the take-up of modern foreign languages in secondary schools than any decision since 2004, when the hon. Gentleman’s party was in government and decided to remove the compulsory element of modern foreign languages. As a consequence of that decision, numbers plummeted.

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[Mr Hayes]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting that fact. As she says, the NAO report, which I have with me, is absolutely clear: for every £1 we spend on apprenticeships, we get a return of £18. Can you think of any aspect of Government policy that represents better value for money than that, Mr Speaker?

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

T8. To be topical, just a moment ago the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb), rightly pointed out the importance of the English baccalaureate in encouraging young people at secondary school to learn modern languages. In order to gain the baccalaureate, young people also have to do well in maths, science and a humanities subject—history or geography. Why not also include religious education as a possible subject here?

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

There has been a large written campaign about religious education and I should make the point that we regard RE as a very important part of the curriculum, as it provides a rigorous subject. However, its study is compulsory until 16 and we were concerned that if we had included it as part of the humanities element, weaker schools would have dropped history or geography and focused only on RE. We want a broad and balanced curriculum taught in our schools, including not only a humanities subject, such as history and geography, but RE.

Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

My colleague is right to stress the importance of the food sector, including food manufacturing. We often talk about advanced manufacturing, but some of the most sophisticated industries are often in those traditional product areas. He is right about the importance of opening barriers. In the European Union context, my team is actively pursuing trade liberalisation with a variety of Asian countries, the Mercosur countries and others. We hope that those agreements will be delivered soon.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

6. What his policy is on the Daylight Saving Bill; and if he will make a statement.

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

May I first pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris) for her excellent work on her private Member’s Bill? As the House knows, the Government supported the Bill, as amended in Committee. Unfortunately, and as the Leader of the House made clear last week, there is no way the Bill could complete its passage through both Houses in this Session, but it could be taken forwards by a private Member’s Bill in a future Session. The Government would not, however, expect to introduce any trial of daylight saving time if there was clear opposition in any part of the UK.

[Hugh Bayley]

In the Western Morning News, the Secretary of State is reported as saying that he is disappointed that the Bill was killed by a handful of Back Benchers who could not see the light, and that he did not rule out Ministers—I repeat, Ministers—finding more time. If the Government are genuinely committed to this measure, as they say they are, and if it is not just warm words and they really want it to happen, will they commit to bring forward a Bill of their own in this Session or the next?

[Mr Davey]

The Leader of the House explained the problems of doing so in this Session and was equally clear that we would welcome a private Member’s Bill in the next Session. This Government have worked harder on this issue than the last one did, and we have made more progress. I would hope for emerging consensus in the House because this Government are making real efforts.

Employment (North-West)

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Wednesday 6th July 2011 Westminster Hall

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Blackpool South (Mr Marsden) on securing the debate.

It is a pleasure to take part in a debate with the phrase “north-west” in the title, because there is a bit of a structural issue in this place about the treatment of the English regions vis-à-vis other parts of the country. We hear a great deal about Scotland, and we have Scottish questions. We also have Welsh questions and Northern Irish questions. However, we hear little about the English regions, which is why I am pleased to take part in the debate. In that regard, at least, people on both sides of the Chamber have more in common with the each other than not.

I want to talk first about how London-orientated our economy is. The gross value added of the north-west is approximately 60% of London’s, and no other major economy in western Europe or the US has a similar discrepancy. That is extremely serious for our constituents, because there is an assumption that anything world-class that happens in this country goes back down to London, and we need to do what we can as MPs to fight that. I will talk a little about some of the world-class enterprises that we have in the north-west, which we need to encourage.

I also want to talk about the public spending that Scotland gets vis-à-vis the English regions. Today’s debate is not the place to discuss the Barnett formula, but it is a fact that if my constituency was north of the border, and it had the same demographics and a similar needs profile, it would get about £1,600 a head more in public spending.

A small thing that happened a fortnight ago should give us all food for thought in the north-west. We have talked about the Mersey Gateway project, but another major bridge programme will take place just north of Edinburgh, when the Forth road bridge is replaced. That bridge will not be tolled, but ours will be, and it is increasingly difficult to understand why such discrepancies and differences can continue in the same country and still be defended.

I want to go back to the point about London. I will not make a party political speech, but the fact is that London has got away from the rest of the UK, including the north-west. That has got worse over the past decade. That was principally because of the financial services boom in London, which caused the rather frothy increase in GDP per head there, and we saw the reckoning that occurred. One of the reasons why the situation got worse—again, this is not a party political point, but one for both Front Benchers—is because two years ago, Government capital spending per head in London was three times what it was in the north-west. That level of discrepancy generated private sector jobs, affluence and all that went with it for London. I very much hope that the coalition will do what it can not to let that happen in the future.

Infrastructure is part of how the north-south divide—

[Hugh Bayley (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that the subject for debate is a narrow one. We are talking about career opportunities for young people in the north-west, not about the regional or national economy more generally.

[David Mowat]

My point is that the degree of affluence and gross domestic product that we can generate in the north-west translates to career opportunities. The reason why many of our young people come down to London to make their way is because there are not enough world-class organisations in the north-west. However, I will take your point, Mr Bayley, and move on to the changes in education and career opportunities that have occurred over the past 30 years.

The jobs that our young people need to do, whether or not they are in the north-west, are increasingly technology-based and technology-focused. Companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple are all technology companies. Each has generated perhaps as many as 250,000 jobs in their immediate infrastructure. None of them are in the UK, let alone in the north-west. It is important that this country can compete on technology. One of the most striking things that has occurred over the past 30 years is that while we have increased the number of graduates by a factor of five—that applies to the north-west as well—we have fewer people studying engineering than we did 30 years ago. That is not a point for just the previous Government or the Government before that, because it is what has happened in our country. The consequence is that many of our young people cannot compete for high-technology jobs or in the expanding market in high-technology. That is a shocking failure—it is possibly one of the most dramatic failures in education policy in the past. I will be interested to hear the Minister’s response to that.

Finally, our economy will continue to be fairly focused on manufacturing. A unit of GDP generated from manufacturing uses more energy than a unit of GDP generated from services. It is important for the north-west economy, and therefore for the prospects of the young people in the north-west, that energy prices are kept competitive. I am interested to hear how the Minister addresses my concern, which is that this country is sleepwalking its way into having higher energy prices than any similar economy in Europe. That will bear down particularly hard on parts of the country where manufacturing, especially process manufacturing, is a significant feature.

[Hugh Bayley (in the Chair)]

I need to start the winding-up speeches at 3.35 pm at the latest.

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[Hugh Bayley (in the Chair)]

The generosity of the Opposition spokesman means that there is a little more time for Back Benchers. I call Bill Esterson to speak for a maximum of five minutes.

English for Speakers of Other Languages

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd May 2011 Westminster Hall

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

On a number of occasions, I have presented certificates to ESOL graduates in my constituency. York college, which provides the majority of the courses, does an essential job.

English is one of our great national assets. It is the international language for business, science, politics and the internet. It gives our country an enormous economic advantage. It is a mistake to think of immigration as a one-way flow. Millions who came to our country helped us to create the economic boom of the noughties. They came from eastern and central Europe and from many other parts of the world, and many of them returned to their countries speaking English, which helps to give us the enormous global economic advantage of making ours the pre-eminent international language.

The Government are right to use the teaching of English for speakers of other languages as a way to help people get paid work, but they are wrong to suppose that it is only Jobcentre Plus that provides a route from benefits into work. College courses are effective, and they reach people that Jobcentre Plus does not reach and enable them to find work. The Government are also wrong to assume that paid work is the only way for people to contribute to society. What about voluntary work? The big society will fail if it does not involve immigrants and speakers of other languages. The Prime Minister is right to say that immigrants have a duty to integrate; they should not be excluded from the big society, but unless they are given the opportunity to learn our language, they will be.

The Association of Colleges has made some useful suggestions, and I hope that the Minister will consider them carefully and take them on board. It suggests a sliding scale of fees rather than students getting the course for free or having to pay the full rate. It also suggests that for many of those with basic skills needs, the learning of English is a means to an end, because without the ability to communicate in our language, they will not gain the necessary basic numeracy and literacy skills.

I know that time is short, so my final point is this. I know that the Minister has taken a huge interest in promoting apprenticeships during his time in Parliament, both in opposition and in government. He will know that black and minority ethnic people are enormously under-represented on apprenticeship schemes. If the Government cut back on giving people from other countries who do not speak English the opportunity to learn our language, that huge racial disadvantage will never be overcome.

Higher Education Policy

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I will turn to that point as I develop my argument. I hope the hon. Lady will accept that the Government whom she supported left behind a fiscal crisis. We were borrowing £120 million a day and were heading for the largest budget deficit in the G20. In fact, the position was so bad that the previous Chancellor had set out proposals for bringing down the deficit by reducing public spending. It is an irony that the Opposition called this debate in the very month when the previous Government’s spending cuts would have started to take effect—£14 billion of cuts planned for this financial year by the previous Chancellor, £16 billion of cuts that we are implementing.

As the shadow Secretary of State knows because he was in the Government at the time, it is clear from the pre-Budget report of December 2009 that there was a commitment to £600 million of cuts from the higher education and science and research budget. It was never explained what those were to be. As we know from the work done by the Institute for Fiscal Studies when it tried to assess Labour’s plans when the previous Government left office, there were to be reductions in public expenditure that the IFS estimated as a 25% reduction in the budget of the Department where the Secretary of State and I serve. So we inherited a mess that we have to sort out.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

The question is not whether the deficit needs to be reduced, but whether the decision to impose cuts of 80% on universities is the right way to do it. How will students benefit when they pay three times as much in fees but get less spent on the quality of their education in our universities?

[Mr Willetts]

Let us turn to that. Given that we face a crisis in the public finances, and given that even the previous Government had planned £14 billion of saving, how does one best deliver those in a departmental budget which I do not think any of the three parties represented in the House said could be exempted from reductions? Fortunately, the previous Government set in train an exercise that helped tackle precisely that problem. In November 2009 they commissioned Lord Browne to review the financing of higher education, and they made perfectly clear the wide range of options that they wanted him to look at.

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[Mr Willetts]

Let me just develop this point, because crucially the best way to save money is not to go for reductions in the teaching grant per student, as that simply means a lower-quality experience for students in our universities; instead, the aim is to provide universities, as the teaching grant is reduced, with an alternative source of income from fees and loans which does not involve students paying any money up front.

[Hugh Bayley]

rose—

[Mr Willetts]

I am just going to carry on explaining the basic finances of the measure, because they are so important and the Opposition clearly do not understand them. The point is about lending students money to pay fees. For example, if we lend them £1,000, we can reasonably expect, on the basis of outside forecasts, about £700 of that to be repaid, so we account for the £300 of the loan that is written off—that will not be repaid—but know that we will get approximately £700 back. That is the financing model in Lord Browne’s report, which the Labour party commissioned, and that is what enables this coalition to save money for the Exchequer, to continue with high levels of finances and to ensure that students do not have to pay any money up front. That is an excellent combination of policies at a time when money is tight.

Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Monday 7th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is not just the rights of the pupils who disrupt the class that are important—although they are—but those of the overwhelming majority of students in class, which we must also protect.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

16. What estimate he has made of the savings to accrue from terminating education maintenance allowance payments in September 2011 for students who are already part of the way through a two-year programme of study.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)]

The cost of continuing to pay EMA from September 2011 for a further year to all students currently receiving it is estimated at £300 million, excluding the costs of administration.

[Hugh Bayley]

York college tells me that, last September, on the Secretary of State’s watch, 650 students started two-year courses in the expectation of getting an education maintenance allowance for two years. To continue it would cost less than £500,000. Will the right hon. Gentleman reconsider?

[Michael Gove]

I am very grateful for the moderate and considered way in which the hon. Gentleman puts his point—I know how passionate he is about further education. [Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

We are certainly doing that, as we set out in our post office policy document last year. There is a pilot in Glasgow and south Lanarkshire in which pay-out technology is being used in co-ordination with credit unions, and guidance has been given to sub-postmasters about how they can work with their local credit unions.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

Hundreds of post offices up and down the country are temporarily closed. If the Minister is really committed to not having closure programmes such as we have seen in recent years, what is he doing to get those post offices reopened, and when will the post office on Walmgate, in York, reopen?

[Mr Davey]

In my constituency, when I was in opposition and the last Government were in power, a post office was temporarily closed and I worked with Post Office Ltd to get it reopened. We succeeded; the hon. Gentleman should do that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Thursday 18th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

No, it does not. We are investing £1.4 billion in the regional growth fund, £10 billion in roads, and £14 billion in the railways, and we are ensuring that Nissan and others have the support that they need. That is why I shall be meeting Nissan on Monday.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

4. How much money the regional growth fund will distribute to enterprises in Yorkshire in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Mark Prisk)]

The regional growth fund is a challenge fund for England and is not ring-fenced or pre-allocated, including in terms of location. The fund will run for three years from 2011 to 2014, and the first round of bidding is now open for receipt of project proposals. It will close on 21 January 2011.

[Hugh Bayley]

As investment in jobs, Yorkshire Forward offered the National Railway museum £5 million towards the cost of redisplaying the exhibition in its great hall, but was forced to withdraw the money because of the Government’s withdrawal of support for regional development agencies. Does the Minister agree with his colleague, the Under-Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey), who suggested at a meeting with me and his hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) that the regional growth fund could be used to fund the National Railway museum to pick up where Yorkshire Forward was forced to leave off? Will he consider that proposal, and get back to me to talk about how that could be taken forward?

[Mr Prisk]

I have been to the National Railway museum, which is an excellent part of Yorkshire’s tourism and industrial heritage. There are clear rules about the regional growth fund, and they could well include the opportunity for a bid from the National Railway museum. If the hon. Gentleman or his local partners wish to proceed with that, they should look at the White Paper, and if there are any problems, I am happy to help.

Historic Towns and Cities

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Tuesday 19th October 2010 Westminster Hall

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Eric Ollerenshaw) on securing this important debate. I listened with care to what he said.

Striking a balance between preserving heritage and generating jobs for people in the present day is important. However, I do not take the view that heritage is an obstacle to development. If I look at my own constituency, the city of York, I see the valuable built heritage as an enormous economic asset.

York is especially rich in built heritage. The Multangular tower is, I think, the only extant Roman building in Britain that still rises 10 metres above the ground. The minster and city walls were mentioned by the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood. York has mediaeval streets such as Shambles and Georgian streets such as St Leonard’s place, as well as Victorian architecture. Great museums, such as the National Railway museum, the Jorvik Viking centre, the Castle museum and the Yorkshire museum, and the race course all attract visitors to York in their millions. In the last year for which I have figures, 2008, 7.1 million tourists visited York—2009 figures will be out soon—and they spent £450 million in the city, creating thousands of jobs for local people.

Those historic assets, when combined with extremely good schools, two excellent universities and York college, in a brand-new building, have made the city of York a magnet for investment. There are new industries such as those based on bioscience, which have grown out of expertise at the university of York campus. Engineering, which still employs thousands of people in York, draws on the city’s long railway heritage, and there are, as I mentioned, thousands of jobs in tourism and retail.

The York economy performs particularly well. Almost 80% of the working-age population in York is in employment, compared with less than 75% nationally. Only 6.8% of people in the city of York have no qualifications at all, compared with more than 12% nationally. More than a third of the population in York—36%—have a national vocational qualification of level 4 or above, compared with only 29% nationally. Only 4% of young people in York are not in education, employment or training, compared with some 14% nationally.

In terms of business growth, York again does well. Between 2000 and last year, the number of businesses in York grew from 4,645 to 5,820. No one could possibly say that York’s exceptionally rich heritage is an obstacle to economic activity or development. In fact, it is an asset.

There is a citizen-led campaign in York for the city to gain UNESCO world heritage status, which I support. There is no evidence that Edinburgh castle and the Royal Mile have suffered as a result of the city obtaining UNESCO world heritage status. I hope that the York bid will get support from York city council and from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It would in no way interfere with development, because York and its planning authorities have to safeguard the heritage whether or not we have UNESCO world heritage status.

When the developers were digging the foundations of the Coppergate site 30 years ago, they uncovered Viking Jorvik. Far from demanding money from the Government to dig the site, the York Archaelogical Trust made the dig a commercial success, in the same way in which the Jorvik museum is now a commercial asset to York as well as an important guardian of the city’s rich historical heritage. The site draws visitors to the Coppergate area, which is a shopping centre as well, so it is good for business, too. The same is happening in Hungate. The Archaeological Trust is currently digging the site in a way that is compatible with development.

York’s historic assets, such as the minster and the National Railway Museum, are treasures of national and international importance. As such, they need support from national Government. I welcome the decisions that were taken in the Government’s quango cull this week not to get rid of the independent status of the National Railway Museum and, particularly, not to merge English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund, which are two bodies with separate roles. English Heritage has a regulatory role and makes grants available from public funds, whereas the Heritage Lottery Fund makes grants available from lottery receipts, and we need both bodies. I warmly welcome confirmation of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s grant of £9.7 million towards the restoration of York minster’s great east window, which is the largest mediaeval work of art anywhere in the world. It is a Yorkshire icon and has been for centuries. It will cost some £25 million to restore, and our generation must not fail to maintain an international treasure with the status of York minster.

Yorkshire Forward had promised two substantial grants to heritage bodies in York. Some £5 million had been pledged towards the cost of re-displaying the exhibition in the National Railway Museum’s great hall—which has not been re-displayed since the museum was first built—and £1 million was to go towards restoring the minster’s great east window. As a result of the Government’s decision to abolish regional development agencies, those grants were withdrawn. Although I do not want to get into an argument now about the benefits of regional development agencies today, I do want to say to the Minister that if a vehicle for distributing resources to generate employment is going to change, which it is, it is important that the new mechanisms recognise the importance of heritage as a generator of employment, and that there are times when grants need to be made to support heritage because of the economic and employment consequences of so doing.

I know that we live in straitened economic times, but there is much that the Government can do to support the valuable heritage of historic towns and cities such as York that does not necessarily cost a fortune. Sir Ron Cooke, a former vice-chancellor of the university of York and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, recently wrote the interesting document, “Downtown York: a practical manifesto”. Although I do not expect the Minister to read it because I know that mountains of paper go across ministerial desks, I commend it both to his officials and to officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. There are some big ticket items such as major economic developments to which the Government would have to make a contribution. The York central site, for instance, is a large one—it is probably two thirds of the size of the area within York’s city walls—behind York station, bounded by railway lines with difficult access. It is a huge development site adjacent to the city walls, which provides enormous opportunities for York’s continued economic development. Without some Government funding for access roads, for instance, that development will not take place.

In his paper, Sir Ron Cooke says:

“York’s inner-city streetscape, its ambience and public realm, are unique and spectacular resources that are fundamental to the city’s present and future prosperity. They are amongst the city’s special selling points, not just for visitors, but also for residents, entrepreneurs, investors, job creators, employees on the move, and students.”

He says that those streets are the stage on which everyone plays. He makes the point that through planning decisions, we sometimes undermine or wreck that very special ambience. In the 1960s for example, some concrete and glass buildings—thankfully, only a few—were built in the centre of York. We recently gave permission for a rail engineering firm to build a block that overshadows the city walls. Those planning mistakes should not be repeated, as they undermine what is special about York and what draws investment to York.

Sir Ron Cooke also mentions signage. We litter everywhere with street signs. Sometimes, a big illuminated concrete or stainless steel monstrosity is erected in the wrong place. There is one such sign at the end of Shambles, which is the prettiest mediaeval street anywhere in Britain. The signs can be taken down; they are not needed. The streets of York were not built for motor cars, and most of them are pedestrianised anyway, so cars do not go up and down them. If a bollard is really needed, we could put up something appropriate that is made of cast iron rather than concrete. Such things do not cost a fortune. We could set up a committee to plan in a different way. Given that York and other historic cities are such valuable places for running businesses, developers tend to want erect buildings that are in keeping with the surroundings.

I know that many other hon. Members want to speak, so I will conclude. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood for obtaining this debate and giving me the opportunity to say a few words.

Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

At this stage, we are not specifying the precise financial techniques that will be employed, but clearly, we will retain options and look at the variety of possibilities in future. Moreover, I would stress that the green investment bank is one of several policies that is driving the low-carbon economy, which also include reform of the electricity tariff system, the green deal and those that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is pursuing.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

13. What consultation Royal Mail plans to undertake with businesses and the public on proposals to close sorting offices in Yorkshire and the North East.

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

Decisions regarding the rationalisation of Royal Mail’s mail centres are operational matters, which are the responsibility of the company’s senior management team. The Government are not directly involved in those decisions. The rationalisation process was centred on an agreement between the Communication Workers Union and Royal Mail. I understand that Royal Mail is not obliged to consult publicly on its internal review of proposals for restructuring its mail centres. However, it commits to keep all interested external stakeholders informed, and I believe that it has been in contact with the hon. Gentleman.

[Hugh Bayley]

The hon. Gentleman and the Government should be concerned about how the Post Office and Royal Mail serve their customers. Two years ago, when Royal Mail shifted the sorting of second-class mail from York to Leeds, it gave me a firm undertaking that it would consult the public if ever it considered shifting the sorting of first-class mail as well, and closing the York sorting office. That is what the company now proposes, but it has not consulted. Will the Minister ensure that the company consults businesses that will be affected and the general public in my constituency, or does the Government’s enthusiasm for privatising Royal Mail put them in a position in which they are no longer concerned about the customer?

[Mr Davey]

I am sure that Royal Mail will again be in contact with the hon. Gentleman on those points, but he must tell his constituents that the experience of rationalising mail sorting centres has led not only to efficiency improvements that reduce the costs of sorting and delivering mail, but to an improvement in customer service to his constituents. If he wants quality and delivery to improve for his constituents, he should support that rationalisation.