Lord Pack (LD)

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In so doing, I particularly welcome the noble Lord, Lord Sarwar, whose maiden speech I look forward to hearing in this debate. I hope that a short Lib Dem-initiated debate about parcels, if not perhaps the realisation of a long-standing dream item on the noble Lord’s bucket list, will at least provide a congenial forum for his debut. I am sure he will rise admirably to the challenge of the very rapid turnaround between his introduction and maiden speech. Parcel deliveries are a central part of modern life. They can bring fun and joy to our lives, such as with a well-timed gift. But they are also essential for our economy, both for sales and for supply chains. They are essential for health too, with many being dependent on parcel deliveries to receive medicines and other health assistance. They give a vital lifeline to the wider world for those who are greatly restricted in their mobility. Yet, the state of the parcel delivery sector is, in some key respects, far from happy. Citizens Advice estimates that 15 million people suffered a problem with their most recent parcel delivery. The 2025 Parcel Theft Report estimates that nearly five million homes were affected in a year by parcel theft, with over £650 million-worth of goods being stolen. I recently found one such stolen package dumped near my own home, presumably because the thieves had discovered that it contained a very large bottle of vinegar and nothing else. I was able to reunite the vinegar with its owner, but of course most victims of theft are not nearly so lucky. What is more, these problems have all the greater impact on those who are less mobile, who are therefore all the more dependent on parcels arriving on time and in the right place. So up against all this, what is Ofcom, the regulator, doing? Not enough. What have the Government done in their recently signed-off statement of strategic priorities for Ofcom? Again, not enough. Unfortunately, prior to the summer, the Government did not find time to debate my regret Motion on that Ofcom strategy. I hope today’s debate will re-focus attention on it, particularly as Ofcom’s own data shows that, of those who contacted a delivery company about an issue, only 45%—less than half—were satisfied with the outcome. Of course, not everyone will be happy in such cases, but the Institute of Customer Service finds that, on average, 63% of people are satisfied with complaint-handling. So, with all due caution about definitions in each case not being exactly the same, it is fair to say that not only do you have less than a 50:50 chance of coming out satisfied if you raise an issue with a delivery firm, but the sector’s overall performance is well below that of other sectors. Ofcom’s data does show that the 45% figure is up one percentage point on the previous year, but that pace of improvement means it would take 18 years for the sector merely to get to the average. Despite being 18 years off merely getting to average, Ofcom’s own commentary, published alongside this data, imparts no real sense of concern or urgency. The Government’s strategy statement merely gives a “welcome” to Ofcom’s approach, along with the suggestion that Ofcom “should take enforcement action where it considers it appropriate”. Given that we are never going to call for inappropriate enforcement, that is about as tepid a form of words as we can get. There is a further reason why Ofcom’s approach is problematic: its requirements for complaints processes are poorly specified and, judging by people’s experiences, not properly followed by parcel delivery firms themselves. The specification problem is that Ofcom requires complaints processes for the sender and the addressee, yet you are neither if you have someone else’s parcel dumped on you. You are neither if you see bad driving or atrocious parking from one of the parcel delivery firms. In fact, these problems will get worse. The Government’s strategy for Ofcom rightly encourages experiments with drones and robot delivery of parcels. But what if a robot heading to someone else’s home crashes into you on the pavement? What if a drone, flying to deliver a parcel somewhere else, crashes into your garden? You are neither the sender nor the addressee, so Ofcom says that there is no need for an adequate complaints process that you can have recourse to. Now, you might think that delivery firms are happy to accept complaints anyway in such circumstances, but outside of Royal Mail, which has its own regulatory structure, that is not my experience, nor that of many people I have spoken to. Worse, there is also the widespread experience that, even if you are the addressee, but you have, say, bought something from an online shop and are therefore not the parcel delivery firm’s customer—the online shop is the customer—the parcel delivery firms will say, “No, you can’t complain to us”, even though Ofcom’s rules say you should be able to. Perhaps most strikingly, the website for InPost—one of the largest delivery firms—which I checked again last night, explicitly says: “Where you have ordered our Services through a retailer or other third party, all queries and complaints should be raised with them directly. Their complaints process will apply.” But that is not what Ofcom’s rules say it is allowed to do. So the complaints process is broken: the regulators’ rules are too narrow and do not appear to be being properly enforced. Moreover, when the Government signed off the strategy for Ofcom—admittedly, before the Minister took up his post—they did not say that things need to get better. Nor are market forces the remedy here, unfortunately, because the operation of market forces is hindered by obscurity. You may have a delivery firm that you particularly wish to avoid—I certainly have my own shortlist. You may have one that you are particularly keen to reward with your business; perhaps you are a great fan of Royal Mail, for example. However, there are no transparency requirements—there is no transparency good practice—for the firm you order from to tell you who it will use to deliver your goods to you. The potential of consumer power is deliberately hindered by obscurity. Again, the reaction from both Ofcom and the Government in their strategy statement has been to say, in effect, “We are happy with the status quo”, rather than to push for transparency and change. In conclusion, we have the problems for the victims of widespread crime; the problems for businesses having to shoulder the costs of those crimes; the problems of a complaints system 18 years away from even getting to average; and the problems of a complaints system that is flawed by design and implementation. It is fair to say that the Ofcom strategy statement was a missed opportunity for the Government to be tough on crime, to promote growth and to help people. Perhaps, however, the cavalry has arrived. A new Minister certainly has arrived, and a maiden speech is about to arrive. Of course, I acknowledge that some of the detail I have raised may best be addressed in a follow-up meeting or correspondence. I hope too, perhaps, that we will hear from the Minister a commitment to have a renewed look at these issues, because they certainly need looking at again.