HC Deb 30 June 1965 vol 715 cc606-8
7. Mr. Robert Cooke

asked the Postmaster-General how many post offices were affected by the shortage of penny stamps on 17th May and succeeding days; what was the cause of the shortage; and when it was rectified.

Mr. Benn

This information is not available centrally. Most offices had plenty of stamps, and those which ran short were supplied within a few hours of ordering them. As the House knows, the shortage was due to unofficial action by staff in our supplies depots, from which stamps are issued to head offices. Emergency measures were set in hand at once, and almost all post offices were thus able to stock up again fully within two or three days. I want to make it absolutely clear that at no time was there any shortage in the stocks of stamps held by the Post Office supplies depots. Sufficient stamps had been ordered and printed to meet the requirements of the new tariff scales.

Mr. Cooke

Does not the Postmaster-General realise that this sort of smokescreen is not much good and the general public were seriously inconvenienced over a long period? In his reply to me last week he admitted that he did not know how many stamps were printed. Is it not plain that he never took any steps to see that the shortage could not happen?

Mr. Benn

Nobody regrets the shortage of stamps more than I do, but the simple fact is that there never was a shortage of stamps held by the Post Office. Unofficial action in the supplies department prevented the stamps from being distributed in the normal way, and there was no shortage of stamps in the Post Office itself. I have explained this to the House, and I think that the hon. Gentleman knows it.

Mr. Gibson-Watt

The right hon. Gentleman has said in the House that the unofficial action by members of the Post Office staff was of only very short duration. Will he not recognise that it is no good having stamps in the Post Office if the stamps are not made available where the public can get hold of them? Does not he look upon this as one of his most glaring administrative failures since he took office?

Mr. Benn

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman can have looked at the facts, which were that unofficial action began at the end of April and continued until quite recently. I was concerned solely in my reply with the point made by the hon. Member for Bristol. West (Mr. Robert Cooke), namely, that the Post Office had not ordered enough stamps to be printed.

The fact is that enough stamps were ordered and printed. They were held in the supply depot and as a result of the unofficial action it was impossible to get them to the head offices without emergency action. These are the facts. No one regrets the inconvenience to the public more than I do.

Mr. Gibson-Watt

I accept what the right hon. Gentleman has said—[Interruption.]—but will he not also accept—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. So much noise as this prevents progress at Question Time.

Mr. Gibson-Watt

Would not the right hon. Gentleman also accept that, in face of the problems with which he and his Department were faced, this was an occasion for some remarkable steps in order to break the deadlock and therefore serve the public? Why was not that done?

Mr. Benn

The hon. Member apparently did not listen to my Reply, which was that emergency action was taken, that most offices were not short of stamps and that those that were short were supplied within a few hours. That was my original Answer and represents the facts of the situation.