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Postal Services Bill [HL]

With due respect to my noble friend the Minister, I heard his reply—I listened very carefully to it—but my noble friend Lord Clarke of Hampstead is asking about the subsidiary companies that are part of the Royal Mail, including GLS. Let me put the question very plainly. What my noble friend Lord Clarke is saying is that recently there was a row about a Dutch company that has been described as a possible buyer. That company was saying that it would take over the European parcel service of Royal Mail. From the discussions that are happening, can the Minister give us an assurance that that company cannot take over that service? I believe from what his colleague said that it has already been said that that would not happen. That is all my noble friend Lord Clarke is asking—that it will not be taken over. What we are disturbed by is the probability that, as part of the deal that may be struck, the parcel division, and particularly the European side of it, will go to a private investor—or the predator, as I would term it.