Questions in Parliament Royal Mail: Scotland

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the proportion of Royal Mail staff who bought shares in the newly-privatised company in (a) Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency, (b) Renfrewshire and (c) Scotland.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 24 June 2014, c168W)

Michael Fallon (The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ; Sevenoaks, Conservative)
The Government has not made any estimates by constituency, county or country of shares bought by Royal Mail staff.

As part of the Royal Mail Initial Public Offering, each eligible employee has now received 729 shares free of charge. Only 372 of the 147,000 eligible employees opted out of the scheme. Approximately 99.75% of employees accepted the shares that we offered them. Under the Employee Priority Retail Offer, over 15,000 employees (just over 10%) bought additional shares in Royal Mail.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Ian Murray (Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills); Edinburgh South, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the answer of 1 May 2014, Official Report, column 782W, on Royal Mail, what link was established in the engagement letter between the payment of the discretionary fee and the ending of the stabilisation period; and what targets or deadlines were set in the letter.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 24 June 2014, c167W)

Michael Fallon (The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ; Sevenoaks, Conservative)
The engagement letter between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the syndicate of banks involved in the initial public offering indicated that the payment of the discretionary fee would be determined 10 days after the end of the stabilisation period and paid five days after that.

As I said in my previous answer (1 May 2014, Hansard, column 782W), we informed the banks that a decision would not be taken in the timeframe set out in the engagement letter given the volatility of the Royal Mail share price after the IPO. The share price remains volatile.

We have not set any timetable for the decision.