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Postal Services Bill [HL]

I have sympathy with the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, and his reading of the clause. Amendment 28 would significantly reduce the scope of Clause 12 so that it would apply to companies directly owned by the Crown. In this instance, that would be only Royal Mail Holdings plc. The reference to "any other person" in Clause 12 does not refer to a partner or any other third party. In fact, nothing in the clause, or indeed in the Bill, relates to a prospective partner. Part 1 deals solely with the Crown ownership and related controls. Clause 12 sets out how to determine the Crown’s ownership of a Post Office or Royal Mail company. It does not and cannot relate to any third party such as a partner. Rather, the wording "any other person" has been included in Clause 12(1) because the Government’s shareholding in a company may be indirect. This is the case now in relation to both Royal Mail Group Ltd and Post Office Ltd. The Government’s stake in both companies is held through their 100 per cent ownership of Royal Mail Holdings plc. When Clause 12 refers to a, ""proportion of a company owned by the Crown or any other person"," it means the proportion owned by the Crown or Royal Mail Holdings plc. If the words "any other person" are not included in Clause 12, the ownership provisions set out in it will not apply to Royal Mail Group Ltd or Post Office Ltd, they will apply only to Royal Mail Holdings plc. I do not believe that that can be the effect that the noble Lord seeks to achieve. As I understand it, Amendment 29 is intended to introduce a definition of the proportion of a company owned by a third party. In this case, that would be that strategic partner. As I explained earlier, Part 1 focuses purely on Crown ownership of Royal Mail and Post Office companies. Part 1 puts in place protection on the ownership of those companies once the current restrictions in the Postal Services Act are repealed. Those ownership protections ensure that Post Office companies are entirely owned by the Crown and that Royal Mail companies remain publicly owned. We have approached the Bill from the perspective of Crown ownership and believe that we should be consistent on that throughout the Bill. In the light of the further clarification that I have provided, I hope that the noble Lord will see that neither of his amendments are necessary and will not press them.