HC Deb 18 June 1986 vol 99 cc1029-30
2. Mr. Peter Brunivels

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he has any plans to end the Post Office's monopoly for the handling and delivering of mail.

The Minister for Information Technology (Mr. Geoffrey Pattie)

No, Sir, but I remind my hon. Friend that there is already free competition for the collection and delivery of all mail, except inland letters charged at less than £1.

Mr. Bruinvels

Although the Post Office has become more efficient and more profitable, surely my hon. Friend will accept that its suggestion to increase the postage rates by another penny when it cannot deliver more than 87.6 per cent. of post the next day is not exactly good news? Should not alternative services be offered? Is that not what the Conservative Government believe in?

Mr. Pattie

The first point I make to my hon. Friend is that the chairman of the Post Office has given preliminary notice to the chairman of the Post Office Users' National Council that he is considering a rise of l p for first and second-class mail. It is worth reminding the House that after inflation is taken into account, the first-class tariff is now about 13 per cent. lower than it was in 1981 and the second-class tariff is 26 per cent. lower. When one sets that against the quite considerable efficiency that the Post Office achieves, it shows that the Post Office does not have a bad record.

Mr. Key

My constituents reckon that the service is between 13 and 26 per cent. worse than it was some years ago. Although the expensive advertising campaign of the Post Office seeks to persuade us that inter-city postal services are very good, postal services in rural areas such as south Wiltshire have declined considerably. That is just not good enough.

Mr. Pattie

Although I sympathise with my hon. Friend's point, I have to say that everybody tends to be aware of postal letters or packets that do not arrive and to take completely for granted the letters that do arrive and which form the vast proportion of the mail. I am sure that the chairman of the Post Office will avidly read this exchange in Hansard and will note my hon. Friend's remarks.