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Postal Services Bill [HL]

That was a very helpful response, but it raises a number of further questions, particularly over the timeline. If I recollect, at Second Reading the Secretary of State talked about summer this year. Could he clarify that a little? Will what is happening in these discussions and negotiations be announced at least in principle before the Bill has completed its passage? He says that anything is possible, but there is no provision in the Bill for the sort of employee share ownership that I outlined—or, indeed, that the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, outlined. We really want some sort of assurance that, if a private partner is greatly encouraged by the thought of extending share ownership as part of the deal, there will still be time to set out the scheme in much more detail. No doubt we will come later to what will happen to the proceeds of any sale of shares—or will we have to leave all that to the Secretary of State, who has not really outlined whether discussions have taken place with one, two, three, four or five different partners? I know that a lot of commercial in confidence negotiations must be going on—or at least I hope that they are, because we all want to see a satisfactory resolution to all this. But could the Secretary of State give a little more indication of what will happen if the private partner with which he starts to finalise discussions wants to see in this Bill some more detailed provision for an employee share ownership scheme, and whether he envisages that there will still be time to introduce that in the legislation?