§ Mr. Tom Kingasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) what percentage of postal revenue is represented by direct mail traffic; and if he can give an estimate of the likely future drop in traffic from direct mail;
(2) what percentage of Post Office capital expenditure is now required to be met from internal finance; and if he will give a general direction to the Post Office to finance any acquisition of outside manufacturing facilities within the present self-financing requirements of the Post Office.
§ Mr. Gregor MackenzieI shall reply to the hon. Member's Questions as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Tom Kingasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he has yet received the revised deficit forecast for the current year for the Post Office; and, if so, what element of this increase in deficit is attributable to the variations in first and second-class postage traffic, respectively.
§ Mr. Gregor MackenzieI am not yet in a position to add to the reply of 1st142W May to the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine) on the Post Office forecast deficit for the current year. It is too early to say whether any element of the increase in the deficit is attributable to variations from the previous forecast in first and second-class letter traffic.