Postal Services Bill

Lord Empey Excerpts

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey]

My Lords, I trust that I might be permitted a little latitude as I make some opening remarks to your Lordships’ House. As someone who has been a lifelong believer in the union, I find it a great honour to come here, to this Chamber and to this building, and to see it adorned with all the symbols of the four home countries and the history that we have shared together over many centuries. It is also an honour to come here on behalf of those whom I have represented. I have had the opportunity to serve in politics since I was a student and I have spent the past 25 years as an elected representative serving at local, European and ministerial level in Northern Ireland. Coming here is a great honour and I look forward to making a meaningful contribution to the business of your Lordships’ House. I thank those officers of the House who have helped me both before and since I was introduced last month. Their guidance throughout that period has been most helpful.

Obviously, coming from my background, I have been involved in the peace process. I see at least one distinguished former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in his place. We have worked together with others in this House over many years to try to improve the livelihoods and the quality of life of our fellow countrymen as they have faced huge challenges.

When it was made public that I was coming here, I had a number of comments from friends and colleagues and, especially when I arrived here, from a number of your Lordships. I was given some guidance on what to expect. I was told that we have here a concentration of expertise from all walks of life among people who are somewhat freed from the shackles of the day-to-day political cut and thrust that one sees in the other place. I must confess that my experience over the past few weeks has not quite measured up to that, as the circumstances in the House have been a little unusual. With tongue in cheek, I said last week when I was going home for the weekend that I was glad to go back to Belfast to some civilised politics. I am sure that this House will return to that which I was advised was the standard that I should expect.

I turn to the comments of the Minister. Having had a responsibility for Northern Ireland’s economy for a number of years as a Minister, I can say that Royal Mail and the Post Office are issues that perhaps go beyond the narrow confines. The general public do not distinguish between the Royal Mail and the Post Office; they see it all as the same thing. You put your letters in a red box and you used to make telephone calls in a red box. People do not understand the mechanics.

I think that we should look at the issue in this way. This is a serious piece of national infrastructure—it is just as important as broadband and it is just as important as roads and the electricity grid—because the service that it provides is vital in bringing our nation together. I cite Hooper, who said in the revised report in September last year that it,

“is part of the country’s social and economic glue”.

That is how I see it. If we wanted any evidence that that is the case, during the recent bad weather in December, before Christmas, how many businesses came on to the radio and television to say, “We can’t get our money in. We can’t do our business. We can’t get our products out”?

Although everybody understands the economics that Royal Mail and the Post Office face, we should not underestimate the significance of the service that is provided. We throw large amounts of public money at rural development policies. Indeed, European money comes in which we spend on rural development. We are trying to build up not only tourism but small manufacturing—cottage industries and so on. Many of them rely on Royal Mail services to distribute their products. Many of those businesses trade on the internet. Although they are in a rural part of the United Kingdom that does not have good transport access, they are able to get on a level playing field through the internet. Then they can distribute their products through the services provided by Royal Mail.

I have to say to the noble Baroness that there appears to be a little contradiction in some of the things that have been said. For instance, as the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, said, the 18-month review seems a little sudden. As I said, I have run a department and I know what a review means, or can mean. We have to be clear that we do not create an undercurrent of uncertainty within the business. We need to be careful about that. Secondly, coming from Northern Ireland, I know that population distribution is significant. We have a large geographical area where the population is spread thinly. That adds extra costs, but it is necessary to create a level playing field so that people in those more remote areas can compete. After all, we are trying to encourage business and to get people to compete and we are telling them that distance should not be a huge barrier to them in building up their businesses.

The population settlement patterns are different in different parts of the country. In some areas, they are concentrated in small villages and towns; in other areas, such as Northern Ireland, they are spread out. When the Government come to look at these issues, it is important that the universal service obligation means what it says. Equally, it is important that we understand that Royal Mail cannot be left with one arm tied behind its back, unable to compete, while allowing other operators to cherry pick the good bits, leaving Royal Mail as the deliverer of last resort. None of us would want that, because it will lead, ultimately, to a spiral downwards in revenues and profits. Therefore, the task in the Bill is to ensure that the USO survives in a meaningful way that frees Royal Mail from the shackles of debt and allows it to compete with its rivals, which are steadily eroding its current market base.

If we are serious about providing the meaningful infrastructure essential for the well-being of our economy in the years ahead, we would do well in the coming weeks, as the Bill goes through its stages, to ensure that the USO will survive, that there is certainty, that both customers and workforce fully understand where they are going and that the business is set an achievable target that will benefit all of the United Kingdom in the years ahead.