Downing Street Says » Royal Mail

» Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Royal Mail

Asked if the Prime Minister thought it ironic that postmen were marching on Parliament when the Government proposed to bail them out of a pension fund deficit, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) said that, as the journalist implied, the Government wanted to secure the future of Royal Mail. We wanted to ensure that we maintained our commitment to a publicly owned Royal Mail, with excellent customer service, which was what the Hooper review had been about. The Hooper review recommended that the Government should take on some of the responsibility for the pension liabilities, and get in a private investor to help modernise Royal Mail for the future. It was important to look at the Hooper review as a whole package and not cherry pick individual recommendations, which Pat McFadden had said this morning.

Put that MPs two main concerns were retaining the universal service and job losses, the PMS said that concerns about jobs was an issue for the company, and that we had a longstanding commitment concerning the universal service which remained unchanged.

Asked under what circumstances the Government would be willing to take on the liabilities of the pension fund, the PMS said that that was a hypothetical question which the Government would turn around to ask under what circumstances we would take forward the recommendations of the Hooper review. The recommendations of the Hooper review needed to be looked as a whole, which included bringing in a private sector investor. It was important to look at Royal Mail s financial position as a whole.

Asked if there was a timetable for achieving partial privatisation, the PMS said that the bill was due to be published in the next couple of days. As and when the Department for Business had more information on the exact process going forward, they would let people know.

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