Steve Darling

It is a privilege and an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood) on her incredible speech and on securing this debate. We have heard during the debate from all four corners of the United Kingdom; this is a significant challenge for constituents up and down the country. As we get towards Christmas, I am sure that all Members have a visit to the sorting centre in their diary. It always feels a little poignant to me, because one of my heroes, David Penhaligon from Cornwall, died on the way to a sorting centre in 1986 while discharging his duties as a community MP. I have been offered a visit to the Torquay centre twice, and on the second occasion I said, “No, I would like to go to Paignton.” Strangely enough, I discovered that the Paignton office was somewhat crowded and unruly. Despite the chaos, the posties were doing incredible work attempting to get the post out to people, but it feels as if there is a bit of gamesmanship in what Royal Mail wants Members to see—or not see. My hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) visited a sorting centre, and posties advised him that the undelivered post was hidden at the back of the office. There are some sharp practices occurring, which I am well aware of. Nikki in my constituency tells me she got an enhanced parking fine because the notice was three weeks late. She then—eventually—received post from an enforcement organisation chasing her up for the unpaid fine. That is utterly shameful, and it echoes what we have heard from around the Chamber about delays in finance-related letters, whether statements or card deliveries, and people being unable to complete transactions that they desperately need to complete. Perhaps the most poignant issue is missed appointments—I will not rehearse the points that have been made, but I am aware of a number of examples in my constituency—which impact not only people’s health, but the hospitals; we know about the challenges in our health service. We are seeing the Royal Mail, in effect, vandalising the service by failing to deliver post in a timely manner, which is utterly shocking. Turning to the most vulnerable, colleagues have talked about people in remote areas, and I am shocked but no longer surprised when I go around former council estates by the number of older folk who do not have access to the internet and do not have a smartphone. The reality of the way they communicate is post, and they have to use a very poor postal system. Those individuals simply cannot be accessed digitally, so they desperately need the post. I look forward to hearing from the Minister how the Government are looking to hold Royal Mail to account, because this is far from being the posties’ fault. Colleagues from different sides of the political spectrum have talked about surveys that they have undertaken. Like them, I have heard from dozens of people about the challenges, the most worrying of which was big batches of post arriving at once. When I have raised concerns with Royal Mail, I have received, in effect, bureaucratic drivel. I say diplomatically to the Minister that I was disappointed by the lack of backbone in the letter that we received. I hope we will hear better today. I am still waiting to hear from Ofcom, but I am looking forward to working with it and the Communication Workers Union to hold people to account. Liberal Democrats believe the Government must maximise the powers of Ofcom, give it teeth and encouraging it to use them, to make sure we have a firm hand on the tiller so that we can navigate the stormy waters facing our posties—and make sure that this is sorted by Christmas.