Asked by: James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has taken recent steps to help support (a) the universal service obligation held by and (b) the financial sustainability of Royal Mail.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s objective continues to be ensuring the provision of a sustainable, accessible, and affordable universal postal service. Ofcom is the independent regulator for postal services and it has the power and responsibility under the Postal Services Act 2011 to regulate the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient UK universal postal service.
Ofcom has in place a monitoring regime that seeks to identify any threats or risks to the universal postal service and it publishes on its website an annual report summarising its monitoring programme which includes an assessment of Royal Mail’s overall financial position:
www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/information-for-the-postal-industry/monitoring_reports.
Asked by: James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to amend the Postal Services Act 2011 to allow Royal Mail to move to five-day letter delivery.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements of the universal postal service which are set out in the Postal Services Act 2011.
There is a clear and transparent process for how changes to the universal postal service should be considered and any change would need to be made through secondary legislation and agreed by Parliament.
Asked by: James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to mitigate the issues created by nominee directors and nominee shareholders on the registers of beneficial ownership.
Answered by Margot James
The register of people with significant control requires companies to register individuals who meet one of 5 conditions with relation to a company to be recorded on the company’s PSC register and that information must be provided to Companies House when the company completes its confirmation statement (formerly the annual return).
The conditions for being a PSC are:
i. Directly or indirectly holding more than 25% of the shares,
ii. Directly or indirectly holding more than 25% of the voting rights,
iii. Directly or indirectly holding the right to appoint or remove a majority of directors,
iv. Otherwise having the right to exercise, or actually exercising, significant influence or control,
v. Having the right to exercise, or actually exercising, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm which is not a legal entity, but would itself satisfy any of the first four conditions if it were an individual.
Anyone who meets these conditions for a company is a PSC. Schedule 1A to the Companies Act 2006 provides for situations where someone may knowingly or otherwise structure their company to avoid these requirements. This includes provisions for the treatment of nominees with regards to the PSC register. This states that nominees should not be included in the register and any shares they hold should be treated as being held by the person that the nominee is holding on behalf of.