The Green Paper on Postal Reform (Department of Trade and Industry, 1994) was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services. It set out various options, the key points of the plan being, *writing into law a

universal service Universal service is an economic, legal and business term used mostly in regulated industries, referring to the practice of providing a baseline level of services to every resident of a country. An example of this concept is found in the US Telec ...

obligation for 6-day a week delivery and "affordable" prices *a new independent regulator enforcing standards in a new Citizens' charter *keeping Post Office Counters (now

Post Office Ltd gd, Oifis a' Phuist kw, Sodhva an Post ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Post Office Logo.svg , type = State-owned private company limited by shares , genre = , predecessor = General Post Office , foundation = 1987 , founder = , location_cit ...

) under the same arrangement, with 19,000 privately run offices and 800 Crown offices *introducing more competition by further reducing the postal monopoly from £1 Then it laid out the different options for consultation of, *a 100% privatisation in a Stock Exchange flotation to the public and employees, making the Royal Mail a public company, *a provisional conclusion to

privatise Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

and

Parcelforce Parcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of the Royal Mail and is organised within the UK Parcels, International and Letters division of the group. The company del ...

, with the government retaining 49% of shares in private companies, or, *giving more commercial freedom to Royal Mail and Parcelforce while leaving them in public ownership. In the event, the plans did not go through. It met with support from Post Office managers, who advocated full sale because in their view this was the only way to achieve commercial freedom. It met with opposition from unions, much of the public and backbench Conservative MPs.

Debate

On 19 May 1994 the Green Paper was to be presented to the House of Commons. The issue was taken up in Prime Minister's Question Time by

Margaret Beckett Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...

as leader of the Labour Party opposition. Later that afternoon

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...

as The

President of the Board of Trade The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. This is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th century, that evolved gradually into a government ...

and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry did present the proposals of the Green Paper. The Post Office, he began, Then followed the debate, opened to the floor of the whole house. Some of the notable contributions are extracted.

Notes

{{reflist, 2

References

*London Economics, ''The Future of Postal Services: A Critique of the Government's Green Paper'' (September 1994) Postal system of the United Kingdom

Debate

See also

Notes

References