§ Mr. Cordleasked the Secretary of State for Employment what instructions he has issued to his Department as to the use of first-class mail; and whether he will issue appropriate instructions to ensure that only urgent letters are sent first class.
§ Mr. BoothWe have standing instructions to ensure that effective an deconomic use is made of the two-tier system. We follow the principle that the cheaper second-class service should be used except when there is judged to be a clear need 529W for the faster but more expensive first-class post. In particular, postal items concerned with adjudication work and with certain aspects of unemployment benefit, finance and statistics work are despatched by the first-class service. Its use depends on the nature and urgency of the business, but all items where delay might result in hardship to individual members of the public are sent first class.