Post Office (Hansard, 3 July 1997)

20. Dr. Tony Wright
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will review the legal immunities of the Post Office. [5224]

§ Mr. Ian McCartney
The Post Office's immunity from contractual liability was granted by Parliament in the Post Office Act 1969. We have no plans to review the position.

Dr. Wright
I am grateful for that answer, but what would the Minister say to a constituent of mine who believes that his small business was eased out of existence by an error of delivery by the Post Office? He managed to get from the Post Office an acknowledgement of its error, but the Post Office refused to go to arbitration and shelters behind its immunities. Surely, in an age when we pay attention to consumers and users of services, we have to re-examine the immunities enjoyed by the Post Office. Will the Minister agree to do that?

§ Mr. McCartney
No. I made it absolutely clear that there is to be no review of that point. Seventy-two million items are handled per day, there is unrestricted access to 100,000 pillar boxes and there are 19,000 post offices, but only a tiny fraction of the mail posted is claimed not to be delivered. I believe that my hon. Friend wrote to me about the case that he has just cited, and I sent him a detailed report. If this is not the same case, I ask him to send me further details, and I shall consider any new points.

§ Mr. Leigh
Given that the sale of the Post Office would raise at least as much as the Chancellor gave to schools and hospitals yesterday, and given that the sale would relieve the public of some of the traditional immunities that militate against their interests, what is the point of principle that decrees that the ultimate monopoly, water, should be privatised under a Labour Government and should be operating successfully and taxed, but that the Post Office should not be privatised and the Government will not even consider the concept?

§ Mr. McCartney
First, the hon. Gentleman was a Minister, but he could not even persuade other Conservative Members about this particular privatisation. Secondly, we have just had a general election in which the Conservative party stood on a platform of privatisation and had its worst defeat in history, and rightly so. We are proud of the fact that the Post Office will remain a publicly owned body providing public services. The review that is taking place is about enhancing the public role of the Post Office, not about privatisation.