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Postal Services Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for that reply. I would just draw his attention to Network Rail—a company without shareholders and, apparently, without responsibility to government. Whenever I ask a Question on it, I am invited to write to the chairman at an address in Euston. No doubt that means that the Government take no responsibility for it. I am quite sure that neither the passengers nor the workforce are considered. So, we want in the Post Office a much, much more effective type of governance than that which we put up with in the railway. I noted what the Minister said about the appointment of the executive and non-executive members. I shall be very anxious to see that the board is dominated by people with the public interest in mind, not the interests of shareholders in Holland or Germany or wherever. I shall read what he said. If I have given the impression that I want Ofcom to appoint the board members, that is wrong—I do not. I do want Ofcom to fix the charge that the Post Office can make for providing services to third parties so that, for example, TNT cannot dump bags and bags of mail and pay less than it costs to deliver it. In the case of the Office of Rail Regulation, I think that a great deal has been done to bring the accountancy system into line. Before I withdraw the amendment I would caution the Minister against taking too much comfort from the work of the National Audit Office. I have seen a recent NAO report that applauds the Government for the way in which they conducted a particular process. In fact, however, the NAO had simply ticked all the boxes of what the Government had done. It never asked whether or how it could have been done better. With those thoughts, which I hope the Minister will reflect on, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 4 withdrawn.