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Postal Services Bill [HL]

The simple response, quite honestly, is that, if the European Commission chose not to give state aid clearance, we would not be able to proceed with the measures in this legislation. It is perfectly clear and straightforward. A bailout of a pension fund on this scale is clearly state aid and is quite a tall order. It requires clearance by the European Commission. We will be in a position to obtain that clearance from the Commission if the measures that we are adopting to tackle the pension fund deficit are accompanied by modernisation, reforms and transformation of the business, which the legislation as a whole, including the introduction of a minority strategic partner, aims to achieve. If anyone imagines that it would be simple or even possible to go ahead simply with a bailout of the pension fund and nothing else, I am afraid that they are not weighing properly the implications of that for state aid clearance. I do not think that we would get it. Therefore, the idea that we could simply go ahead with the part of the Bill relating to pensions and the changes that we are proposing that affect the regulation and get state aid clearance as a result is fanciful. That is why we have no alternative, even if we wanted one, but to go ahead with the legislation in its entirety and not cherry-pick bits of it.