Post Office (Hansard, 9 February 1994)

§ 15. Ms Estelle Morris
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what are his policies for increasing the competitiveness of the Post Office.

§ Mr. McLoughlin
It is for the Post Office Board to ensure the competitiveness of the Post Office and for the Government to set the framework within which it does so. That framework is under consideration within the Post Office review, which is still continuing.

§ Mr. Bayley
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what proportion of post offices as at July 1993 displayed posters giving information on service targets and performance against them.

§ Mr. McLoughlin
As at July 1993 information about service targets and performance displayed on posters in post offices was as follows:
Royal Mail All Crown, franchise and modified sub post offices displayed posters giving 1st class letter targets and performance on a quarterly basis for their local postcode area.
Post Office Counters Ltd. All Crown offices displayed posters giving annual national targets for customer queuing times and performance of the individual office on a quarterly basis. In 1993–94 a rolling programme to introduce posters displaying queuing time targets is being implemented in the largest 5,000 agency offices.
Parcelforce All Crown, franchise and modified sub post offices displayed posters, for a period of one month after the Post Office annual report and accounts for 1992–93 were published, giving national delivery targets and performance for inland services for that year.

§ Mr. Bayley
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what were the service targets set by the Post Office as at July 1993; and what was the performance against them.

§ Mr. McLoughlin
As at July 1993 the service targets set by the Post Office businesses were as follows:
Royal Mail The 1993–94 annual targets for 1st class letter delivery—nationally and for each postcode area—are set out in detail in the Post Office's 1992–93 annual report and accounts. For 1993–94 the overall national target is to deliver 92 per cent. of 1st-class letters on the next working day after posting. For the April-June 1993 quarter in the York postcode area the overall performance for 1st class letter delivery by the next working day was 91 per cent. against a local annual target of 92 per cent.
Post Office Counters Ltd. For all Crown and franchise offices an annual target of 96 per cent. of all customers to be served within 5 minutes was set for 1993–94. For the quarter 22 April-14 July 1993 performance against this target was 97.8 per cent. In addition, this target is being extended during 1993–94 under a rolling programme to 5,000 of the largest sub post offices.
Parcelforce National annual delivery targets for 1993–94 and performance for the quarter April-June 1993 are as follows:

Target Performance April-June '93

Per cent. Per cent.

Parcelforce Datapost 10 99.0 96.9

Parcelforce Datapost 12 99.0 97.5

Parcelforce 24 99.0 95.7

Parcelforce 48 98.0 93.9

Parcelforce Standard 94.0 95.0

305W

	Target	Performance April-June '93
	Per cent.	Per cent.
Parcelforce Datapost 10	99.0	96.9
Parcelforce Datapost 12	99.0	97.5
Parcelforce 24	99.0	95.7
Parcelforce 48	98.0	93.9
Parcelforce Standard	94.0	95.0