Post Office Report and Accounts

HC Deb 20 October 1971 vol 823 cc701-2

12. Mr. Golding

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications when he expects to receive the Post Office Report and Accounts for 1970–71.

Mr. Chataway

I have presented the Report and Accounts to Parliament today and they should be generally available tomorrow afternoon.

Mr. Golding

Is the Minister aware that the Press seems to have received the Report and Accounts rather earlier than hon. Members of this House? When making statements about these documents, will he draw attention not only to the disappointing postal figures but also to the excellent telecommunications profits which the Press tell us have been earned in the last 12 months?

Mr. Chataway

I would not necessarily guarantee that the Press reports which the hon. Gentleman has seen correspond to the figures that are being published tomorrow. The leak—if it was a leak—which occurred was certainly not by design.

Sir G. Nabarro

Is my right hon. Friend aware of the seriousness of this matter? On 7th October, the Daily Telegraph published an article saying that there would be a profit of £93 million on the telecommunications side and a loss of £50 million on the postal services—figures which are evidently broadly correct. Is he aware that we are told that as a result of these figures there is to be a dampening down of demand for telephones, that the tariff is to be raised and that because the postal services lost money postal charges will be increased? Can the consumer never win with this dreadful nationalised corporation?

Mr. Chataway

My hon. Friend asks a number of questions—

Sir G. Nabarro

Good ones, too.

Mr. Chataway

—to which I do not have time to reply this afternoon. The telecommunications side of the Post Office is required to meet a target of 10 per cent. return on capital and it has come very near to meeting it.

Sir G. Nabarro

I know—9.8 per cent.

Mr. Richard

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that it is intolerable for these reports to appear in the Press before Parliament is given the figures? Is he aware that if as a result of these reports the Post Office, sanctioned by him, allows postal services to be cut and the telephone rental to be increased, he will go down in history as the Minister who presided over the worst postal services at the highest prices?

Mr. Chataway

There is a later Question about tariffs. When we reach it I will have an opportunity to reply to some of the points made by the hon. and learned Gentleman. As for the ability of the Post Office to instal telephones and meet the rapidly escalating demand for them, he will know that this is conditioned largely by investment decisions taken four or five years ago.

Mr. Richard

And also because private manufacturers supplying the Post Office cannot keep to their target dates.

Mr. Chataway

The demand for telephones is now running at 28 per cent. above the figure forecast. The Post Office has succeeded in connecting telephones at a rate 10 per cent. above the forecast, which represents a substantial achievement on the part of the telephone service. In so far as it is falling behind demand, that is because the investment decisions taken four or five years ago have limited capacity.