John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)Department Debates - View all John Bercow's debates with the Department for Education
(10 years, 10 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
With permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer this question together with Question 5.
Mr Speaker
Unfortunately not. It is perfectly reasonable for the Minister of State to seek to do so, but the attempted grouping falls because I fear that the hon. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) is not present in the Chamber.
Michael Fallon
I was hoping there would be some interest in this question.
We believe that value for money should be assessed over the long term and should consider not merely the proceeds from the initial sale but the value of the taxpayer’s retained stake in Royal Mail and the reduced risk to the taxpayer and the six-day-a-week universal service of a stable company with access now to private capital.