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Postal Services Bill completes passage through Commons

 
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:46 pm    Post subject: Postal Services Bill completes passage through Commons Reply with quote

I just received this Press Release from the government's COI Press Office. Thought you might be interested:

COI Press Office wrote:

12/01/2011 16:37
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

"Postal Services Bill completes passage through Commons"

The Postal Services Bill has this evening completed its passage through the House of Commons and will now be considered by the House of Lords.

This is the first time that legislation to enable Royal Mail to benefit from private capital has been approved by MPs.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

“I am delighted that our proposals have passed through the Commons. Upon taking office the Government realised it had to move swiftly to tackle the challenges facing Royal Mail and the Post Office to ensure the future of the important services they both provide. We’re absolutely determined to secure the future of these two proud institutions.”

Minister for Postal Affairs Edward Davey said:

“Today is good news for everyone who wants to see a successful Royal Mail and Post Office network.

“MPs from all parties have taken a fine tooth comb to our plans and the many hours of rigorous debate have helped to improve our legislation. We’re convinced that our approach is the right one and look forward to the debates which will soon take place in the Lords.”

Today was the first chance for MPs to debate the amendment that the Government introduced on Monday that will ensure that the Queen’s head remains on stamps regardless of who owns the company in the future.

The Bill includes the following proposals:

Royal Mail

* The requirements of the universal postal service – collection and delivery of post six days a week at uniform, affordable prices are written into the Bill. The Government has no intention of downgrading them.
* Royal Mail will be able to benefit from an injection of private capital - ending the dependence on funding from the taxpayer and bringing new commercial disciplines into the business.
* Alongside private sector investment:
o At least 10% of the shares in Royal Mail will go to its employees in the future. This will be the largest employee share scheme of any privatisation, larger than British Telecom, British Gas or British Airways.
o Royal Mail will be relieved of its enormous historic pension deficit by the Government.
* As part of a general reform of the regulatory regime for mail, the existing regulator, Postcomm, will be replaced by Ofcom, the communications regulator, with the Bill providing for the transfer of Postcomm's regulatory responsibility and its staff to Ofcom.

Post Office

* The network of around 11,500 Post Office branches is not for sale and there will be no programme of closures under this Government. Instead there is £1.34 billion of new funding to modernise the network and safeguard its future, making it a stronger partner for Royal Mail.
* Under the proposals contained in the Bill, the Post Office could be converted into a mutual structure as part of innovative new plans to hand over its ownership and running to employees, sub postmasters and local communities.

The Bill will now be considered by the Lords. It is scheduled to be introduced and have its first reading tomorrow, Thursday 13 January.



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mark occomore



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK

PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Errr. Well the Government want rid of the Royal mail. At least the tax payer won't have to fund it. Some of the poposals we have already heard. As long as I still get my post who really cares.
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Angela W



Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 7222
Location: North Yorkshire

PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I care. I want my post delivered to my home and by people who are honest and trustworthy. I think we are on a slippery slope downhill and at the bottom of it post will get delivered by any old riff raff to housing estates etc. and places where there are not many properties will probably have to collect their own post from goodness knows where. I would much prefer the Royal Mail bringing mine. You only have to look at the sort of firms who bring parcels these days to see what is ahead. We get parcels left on our doorstep out in all weathers and half the time they have been left at the wrong address! As long as they get rid of it they don't care.
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ruddlescat



Joined: 16 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The question is will people get their post though

Or at least will they get it at a standard price especially if they live in a remote area where delivery is not profitable

I am generally in favour of privatisation but I am not sure it will work with the postal service
It's a bit like when the Major Government made the mistake of privatising British Rail which led to masses of problems and a disjointed service

Royal Mail certainly needs a kick up the backside but there are other ways of achieving the desired result
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Lord Evan Elpuss



Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ruddlescat wrote:
Royal Mail certainly needs a kick up the backside but there are other ways of achieving the desired result

Be that as it may, I think the biggest kick up the backsides should go to these toffs who's actions are breaking Britain day by day: http://www.pictogame.com/en/play/game/YrzKQDdHkr7w_dangerous-dave
http://www.pictogame.com/en/play/game/TDIhrdT8Ytg8_oily-osborne
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undiscovered



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well how long til we have to go and collect our mail from the PO, at least that will give the PO some more work but rubbish fo rthe rest of us.

As long as the queens head is still on the stamps eh? at least they got their priorities right. Private money = job cuts
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mark occomore



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder if we will have to pay for our mail to be delivered.
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Rachel
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mark occomore wrote:
I wonder if we will have to pay for our mail to be delivered.


Yes, it's called a Stamp. Smile
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John W



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Warwickshire, UK

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rachel wrote:
mark occomore wrote:
I wonder if we will have to pay for our mail to be delivered.


Yes, it's called a Stamp. Smile


Maybe Mark's thinking the stamp will only pay for collection of mail, the recipient will have to pay for delivery or go to mail depot.

This is what I always have to do for anything bought on ebay, Royal Mail only try once and stick card through door.
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Ian Robinson
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Joined: 11 Dec 2006
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Location: Chorley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 9:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A year ago I'd have been all against the privatisation of Royal Mail but the company is so utterly useless that I welcome any change now.

Don't know about other areas but here in the North West there's a massive backlog of mail because the managers cut the number of sorting offices from 5 to 2 - which would be bad enough, but the dozy sods did it a month before Christmas. That's a special kind of stupid.
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ruddlescat



Joined: 16 Sep 2010
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Location: Near Chester

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with you about mail in the North West Ian

In mid December I sent a quite valuable item to the USA by Air Mail only to receive an e mail late last night telling me it had not arrived
Whren I took the item to the Post Office they said it would take around three days to reach its destination

Of course the problem could be at the USA end but somehow especially bearing in mind the weather in mid December I have a feeling it it stuck somewhere in Britain but tracing such items is virtually impossible

Does anyone happen to know whether one can claim any compensation from Royal Mail in such circumstances and if so up to what financial limit?
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Rachel
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

John W wrote:
Rachel wrote:
mark occomore wrote:
I wonder if we will have to pay for our mail to be delivered.


Yes, it's called a Stamp. Smile


Maybe Mark's thinking the stamp will only pay for collection of mail, the recipient will have to pay for delivery or go to mail depot.

This is what I always have to do for anything bought on ebay, Royal Mail only try once and stick card through door.


That would be stupid- the postmen would be weighed down with cash- why not just charge more to post it in the first place?

When you get a " you were out "card John, you can go online to rearrange a new delivery, or you can ring the 0800 number on the card to arrange a new delivery, or as I've discoverd it's actually better to ring the depot that they took your parcel back to and ask them to deleiver it the next day- they always do.

Redelivery website is here....Smile

https://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/eredelivery;jsessionid=FVWE53GUAF1AWFB2IGDUQEQUHRAYSQ2K;jsessionid=FVWE53GUAF1AWFB2IGDUQEQUHRAYSQ2K?catId=37000673&gear=authentication
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RockitRon



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I must be fortunate, for a change, to live in the right part of the country, because I've never had a problem with Royal Mail.

Everything I ordered online before Christmas arrived by Dec 24th, even something I only ordered two days before, which wasn't expected until the New Year (I was out at the time, but they kept the parcel office open until 5pm so I could go and collect it). Everything I sent arrived at the other end within two days.

(I even ordered something from Amazon France this week. They sent it on Tuesday and it arrived yesterday. They did cheat, though - it came from Milton Keynes!)

Nice of the government to relieve the new foreign owners of the pension fund liability - well, of course, no-one would be interested if they didn't.

Perhaps a privatised national mail service will be more efficient and less wasteful - they could start by doing something about all the red rubber bands which the postmen drop everywhere.
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undiscovered



Joined: 15 Sep 2010
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Location: Peterborough

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have no complaint about service here either, snow and wieght of orders didn't affect service in the slightest. Like Ron all our post arrived on in time for Christmas.

I have a pile of those red bands on my desk as we use them when banking rather than buying them (every penny and that) but it would benice not to see them strewn all over the road
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mark occomore



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Will the cost of a stamp rise if the Royal Mail is sold off? Postmen & Women are paid over £300 a week, which is a good wage. I wonder if they will still get the same wage. I suppose the contracts will be the same, but new recruits may get a lower wage.
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

First Class post will be costing 46p in April which is regulated. Single item post isn't what the big operators want, they want the large bulk contracts so it's bound to suffer. Personally, I'm fed up with Royal Mail. They've been useless here in the last month, whereas parcel companies have been working well. The outlook isn't good for RM.
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John W



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Warwickshire, UK

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rachel wrote:
When you get a " you were out "card John, you can go online to rearrange a new delivery, or you can ring .....


Yes, I know those options SHOULD exist but HERE AROUND COVENTRY they CAN'T deliver next day because apparently our mail, if not delivered, goes to Northampton, then next day it travels to a depot in Coventry and can be collected from 5.00pm, if we don't then they try and deliver the next day, that's TWO DAYS since last attempt.

Rolling Eyes

I avoid hassle and pop down to Coventry after 5.00pm
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