§ Earl Attleeasked the Chairman of Committees:
In light of the current unofficial industrial action, what arrangements are in place to maintain inward and outward parliamentary mail services. [HL5279]
§ The Chairman of Committees (Lord Brabazon of Tara)I regret that the House faces considerable difficulties as a result of the current industrial action. I understand that normal outward-bound mail (that is, mail that is put in "external" mail boxes with either a frank or a stamp) is being collected by Royal Mail and stored for onward transmission as soon as possible at its south London mail centre. There is no guarantee as to the time of its ultimate delivery. With regard to inward-bound mail, Royal Mail is making efforts to extract Houses of Parliament mail from normal mail flows and to make deliveries.
The current advice from the Parliamentary Postmaster is that any items for delivery to Members should be placed in the internal mail system, addressed to the Member concerned at "House of Lords". These items will be sent to the Member in a mail forwarding pouch. Royal Mail has given a firm commitment that these items will be delivered as instructed by Members.
I understand that items posted by special delivery are currently being collected from and delivered to the House as normal. In addition, deliveries by Datapost of the Minute and Hansard, to Members within central London who receive this service, are unaffected.