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Postal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, Amendment 15 seeks to impose another reporting requirement, this time on the partnership deal once it has been negotiated. It became clear in Committee that as regards the final shape of the deal, the Secretary of State is keen to keep as much flexibility as possible in the Bill. Although that is understandable, there is a clear need for the details to be made as transparent as possible and to be available as soon as possible, and for the appropriate people to be fully accountable for the way in which they have disposed of shares in a public asset. The Secretary of State helpfully proposed in Committee that he would make a Statement to this House when the deal is concluded. We welcome that assurance. We hope, however, with this amendment to ensure that the debate such a Statement will undoubtedly trigger is as informed as possible. A Statement, while entirely appropriate for allowing this House the opportunity to question the Government on their actions, cannot contain the level of detail that we and the public need to know. There is more to this deal than just the question of how much money was got for how many shares, although this will be one of the critical questions. For example, we have particular concerns over whether the private partner will be able to take the necessary decisions. The Secretary of State has been at great pains to reassure those sitting behind him that the Royal Mail will remain a publicly owned and controlled body. Unfortunately, he has done so much in that direction that we have concerns about whether the private partner will have any power at all to make politically unpopular decisions. Ambiguous words like "a meaningful say" and "shared responsibility" can mean very different things to different people. As we will be making clear in a later debate today, we are also keen on the establishment of an employee share scheme. We would be extremely unhappy to find that the Government have negotiated away the possibility that one could be set up. I hope, therefore, that the Government will accept our amendment and will also take this opportunity to give this House any further information that the Minister can about what sort of deal the Government are working towards. I beg to move.