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Royal Mail

As ever, the hyperbole of the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alan Duncan) disguises the lack of any credible policy in his party. The hon. Gentleman implied that nothing had been done about Royal Mail for the last 10 years. I remind the House that, in 2007, the Government made available £850 million in reserves on the balance sheet to support the pension fund, that they made available loan finance to help Royal Mail to modernise, and that, back in 2001, they made available £500 million in loans to purchase the companies comprising GLS, which is Royal Mail's European logistics and parcels arm. Action has been taken and change has happened, but, as Hooper reports, that change has been too slow to meet the challenges confronted by the company in the face of changes in consumer habits and the burden presented by the pension fund deficit. I did not follow the hon. Gentleman's logic in that regard. The pension fund does have assets, but it also has liabilities. The problem is that the liabilities are greater than the assets, and that represents a significant burden for the company when it comes to meeting the costs. The hon. Gentleman asked about figures. As I said in my statement, last year the company had to find an extra £280 million—on top of the normal £500 million contribution to the pension fund—because of the pension fund deficit. To help the company to deal with the deficit, we released funds that could be spent on modernisation and meeting the challenges. We have received one approach from a potential partner, and we invite other approaches from interested potential partners. We will try to reach an agreement that is in the best interests of Royal Mail and the British public. The hon. Gentleman mentioned state aid. Of course we are aware that other companies in Europe have undergone similar transformations. We are certainly aware of the critical importance to post office branches of Royal Mail's business. Having made the announcement on the Post Office card account just a month ago, we are looking forward to a more secure and sustainable future for those branches. There is nothing in the statement that I have announced today that will pose a threat to that.