Postal Services Bill — 15 Feb 2000

[Relevant documents: The Twelfth Report from the Trade and Industry Committee, Session 1998-99, on the 1999 Post Office White Paper, HC 94, and the Government's response thereto, HC 50 of Session 1999-2000.]

Order for Second Reading read.

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Mr. Peter Bottomley (Worthing, West):

Resign!

I beg to move, To leave out from 'That' to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Postal Services Bill because it introduces an unsatisfactory structure of ownership which falls short of granting full commercial freedom, introduces uncompetitive borrowing criteria and does not include provision for transparent accounting practices, imposes new burdens of regulation on private companies rather than encouraging competition and fails to introduce clear access criteria to protect the network of sub Post Offices."

The chief executive officer of the Post Office predicts that, if the Postal Services Bill is passed, a further 8,000 post offices will close.--[ Official Report , 2 February 2000; Vol. 343, c. 1036.]

The contractual arrangements between the Benefits Agency and Post Office Counters Ltd. are commercially confidential, as are the contractual arrangements between Post Office Counters Ltd. and certain retail banks under which customers of those banks can access their accounts at post offices.--[ Official Report , 26 July 1999; Vol. 336, c. 93W.]

Question put, That the amendment be made:--

The House divided: Ayes 115, Noes 374.

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con0 114 (+2 tell)072.0%
Independent1 0050.0%
Lab328 (+2 tell) 0079.1%
LDem40 0087.0%
PC3 0075.0%
SNP2 0033.3%
UUP0 1010.0%
Total:374 115076.3%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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