Doug Pickett

The Liberal Democrats have secured a Parliamentary debate to address concerns over the potential impact of European Parliament working time measures on retained firefighters in Scotland.

The EU Parliament’s vote to remove Britain’s opt-out from the Working Time Directive could threaten fire cover in many rural and remote parts of Scotland which rely on retained rather than full-time firefighters, unless the UK Government acts to ensure the necessary exceptions are in place. The adjournment debate was held on Wednesday 11 February.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Scotland Secretary, Alistair Carmichael said:

“This debate is not about whether or not we should end the UK opt-out from the Working Time Directive.

“It is about doing the planning now to ensure that if that does happen, then the directive will be implemented in such a way as to ensure that retained firefighters can continue to provide vital cover across Scotland.”

The Royal Mail Group consists of two distinct operations: Post Office Limited which is responsible for all the post offices and Royal Mail which is responsible for the collection, sorting and delivery of mail. 

The Post Office network has been badly underfunded by a succession of governments. Both the last Conservative and the present Labour administration have overseen a huge programme of post office closures as a direct result.    The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for the maintenance of the Post Office network and recognised this problem some years ago. Our policy calls for the Post Office network to be wholly ring-fenced as a publicly owned enterprise which should benefit from investment to enable it to develop into a “postbank” as well as being a point of contact for people requiring advice with regard to benefits, pensions and tax credits. 

The Royal Mail, as the Hooper Report points out, has a difficult problem. The most significant competitor to the Royal Mail is now email, text and other forms of electronic communication. It is vital that Royal Mail begins to use modern techniques in order to be able to continue to uphold the universal service obligation. 

Liberal Democrat policy therefore is to sell 49% of the Royal Mail, ensuring overall control is retained by the Government and the staff, and to use some of the proceeds to invest in a modernised Post Office. Further, we would put at least one-quarter of the Royal Mail into an employee-owned trust so Royal Mail workers become employee owners along the lines of the John Lewis model. 

EDM 428 fails to recognise the core problems within Royal Mail, fails to recognise the need for a solution to provide a publicly owned Post Office and is largely concerned with motions passed at Labour Party conferences. I therefore do not feel it would be appropriate for me to sign it. However, I have signed EDM No. 668, which advocates an excellent solution for the Post Office network and reads:  

“That this House notes the vital importance of the Post Office network to communities both urban and rural; believes that the Post Office network is well placed to deliver a range of financial services and products which would assist in combating financial exclusion; further believes that the Post Office network offers an opportunity to act as an advisory interface between the state and the citizen in matters such as benefit and tax credit; and further believes that in light of the Hooper Review the Post Office network must be ring-fenced as a discrete, publicly owned network, and that the Government should invest in the network to create a postbank and advisory service.”