Post Office Review Committee (Report) (Hansard, 21 July 1978)

§ Mr. Varley

The Government have today published a White Paper on the Post Office (Cmnd. 7292) in response to the report of the Post Office Review Committee which was issued last July.

In reaching its conclusions the Government have given careful consideration to the comments received during the period of public consultation and to the views expressed by the major interested parties.

The White Paper expresses the Government's agreement with the Review Committee that the Post Office's prime duty is to provide good service to its customers with the maximum possible efficiency in the use both of manpower and of physical and financial resources. It outlines the Government's role as being to provide a stable framework of responsibilities and objectives within which the Post Office can plan and invest.

Among the objectives set out in the White Paper are specific performance aims for posts and telecommunications which have been agreed with the Post Office. On posts, the aim is that taking 1977–78 as a base real unit costs should remain constant over the five years to 1982–83 so that tariffs need not increase overall any faster than the general level of prices in the economy. On telecommunications the White Paper looks for a general reduction in the real unit cost of the services of some 5 per cent. per annum over the same five years.

On the Review Committee's recommendation that the Post Office should be split into two separate public corporations the White Paper concludes that no final decision should be taken until the Government have had a chance to assess the results of the two-year experiment in industrial democracy and of the policy of greater devolution of managerial responsibility within the present statutory framework. The Review Committee's proposal for a council on Post Office and telecommunications affairs would in the Government's view blur responsibilities and delay decisions in much the same way as the policy councils recommended by the National Economic Development Office for all the nationalised industries. The White Paper acknowledges, however, that there is room for improvement in 416W public accountability and monitoring arrangements; it therefore sets out proposals, including proposals for strengthening the Post Office Users' National Council, which are designed to achieve this.

The White Paper also reaffirms the Government's support for the experiment in industrial democracy and makes clear the Government's view that the letter and telecommunications services should remain statutory monopolies in public ownership.

The White Paper also includes an annex, prepared by the Post Office, which sets out its policies and proposals in the light of the Review Committee's recommendations.

Copies of the White Paper are now available in the Vote Office.