Parliament ditches Royal Mail deliveries for letters to MPs

[POSTMAN]

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Outrage as Parliament ditches Royal Mail deliveries for letters to MPs - and hands contract to a private firm
DX Group has been hired to deal with mail sent to MPs at Westminster
Private firm underbid Royal Mail when the contract was put out to tender
Move designed to save 'a few thousands pounds', says union boss
MP asks: 'If we don't use the Royal Mail, how can we expect the public to?'


A row has erupted over a Commons decision to stop using Royal Mail to deliver letters to MPs from their constituents – and hand the contract to a private firm.

Until now, correspondence from MPs’ constituency offices has been sent to the Palace of Westminster via Royal Mail.

Last year the Commons received more than two million letters. But the job has been taken over by the DX Group, provoking a furious reaction from unions and Labour MPs.

One MP, David Anderson, said: ‘The Commons contract has been thrown to the wolves of the private sector. If Parliament doesn’t use the national postal service, how can we expect the public to?’

Paul Clays, North East regional secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, added: ‘The Tories are being hypocritical. They talk about protecting public services and the same day hand work to a private operator to save a few thousand pounds.’

The decision to hire the DX Group was taken by the House of Commons Commission. Commission member and Conservative MP Sir Paul Beresford said: ‘The House of Commons spends approximately £500,000 on the mail forwarding service for Members.

‘In compliance with UK procurement regulations, it is required to seek competition for the service. Royal Mail submitted a bid but were not the best overall value-for-money supplier.’

Ministers are already under fire over plans to sell the Government’s remaining stake in Royal Mail. George Osborne hopes to raise £1.5 billion in the sell-off.

But unions have warned of industrial action unless pay and conditions are protected when the firm is fully privatised.

[brockleylion]

As far as I know none of our competitors forward mail so if that's the penny pinching Tory way then it will backfire pretty quickly so all the best dx,redirection is when people move and you forward there mail to there new address just to give you a hint.

[Lounge Lizard]

So correspondence from MPs’ constituency offices sent to the Palace of Westminster each weekday would be about 169,000 packages at approximately £500,000 is about £3 each.

[NWpostie]

They will probably take too long to deliver, deliver to the wrong MP, lose it only to be found by a member of public in a bin, cue outcry in the papers, contact list accidentally leaked, cue more outcry in the media, "lessons will be learned", contract renewed at a higher cost.

Sounds familiar

[PHARRY]

As far as I know none of our competitors forward mail so if that's the penny pinching Tory way then it will backfire pretty quickly so all the best dx,redirection is when people move and you forward there mail to there new address just to give you a hint.

You mean penny pinching LABOUR WAY

[TrueBlueTerrier]

As far as I know none of our competitors forward mail so if that's the penny pinching Tory way then it will backfire pretty quickly so all the best dx,redirection is when people move and you forward there mail to there new address just to give you a hint.

You mean penny pinching LABOUR WAY

That would be a neat trick penny pinching and poor financial understanding at the same time.

[brockleylion]

As far as I know none of our competitors forward mail so if that's the penny pinching Tory way then it will backfire pretty quickly so all the best dx,redirection is when people move and you forward there mail to there new address just to give you a hint.

You mean penny pinching LABOUR WAY

No I don't mean labour way it's definitely a Tory majority government at the moment and they are changing the contract that has stood for years,wish them well with it.