Speeches by Edwards.

“Has some of that been lifted since this Committee session was announced? Has there been a bit of an alleviation?”

“I do not necessarily think we want a race to the bottom, though; we want a good service for the entirety of the country. There is also an additional reliability target that effectively says that mail—if it is first class or second class—cannot be delivered two days later than the allotted time it is supposed to arrive …”

“In the interests of brevity, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million in October 2025—six months ago now—and asked you to urgently create an improvement plan. Where is it? Can we see it? When is it being published?”

“I want to pick up on your point, Ms Black, about USO reform, particularly because I think it is an interesting term to use, given that we are seeing it move in the wrong direction—the Committee would probably agree. At the moment, from 1 April this year, we are going to see first-class delivery targets dropping from 93…”

“The evidence we have heard suggests that the challenge is that that has not been happening. I was trying to establish whether it had been looked at as to whether, as an investor, the universal service obligation was actually a problem for the company and something that you are trying to overcome. At the moment, we do n…”

“Mr Křetínský, I believe you are a billionaire. I have never met a billionaire. I was just wondering what made you buy Royal Mail. We have some figures in front of us—you said you are a numbers person, so I would appreciate your assistance here. In 2019, Royal Mail had an adjusted operating profit of £234 million. In 20…”

“How is that going to translate into the way in which you decide whether to issue a fine? Obviously, this is adding to a structure that you currently have, so you are broadening the KPIs, as such, that you use to measure its performance. How do you think you are going to use these reliability targets? How are you factor…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for bringing forward such an important debate. Constituents of mine have asked me to attend not just to thank him, but to support his calls for a co-ordinated strategy. They lost their son when he was three, so they share all such families’ feelings that more needs to be done to get to the bottom…”

“When do you think that will be?”

“We heard in our last session that there has been a drive to prioritise parcels over letters. Now, some of that is clearly a logistical operation, but we also know there has been a boom in online shopping, and clearly lots of people are ordering parcels and the like. Is that something that attracted you to the business …”

“Q13. Prime Minister, I need your help. Today, alongside leading trade bodies, including UKHospitality, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Startup Coalition, I am launching the TNT charter—trust and transparency in business energy—to blow up the status quo and support SME access to fair contracts, clearer pricin…”

“I am interested in the resources of the CMA. It has had a voluntary exit scheme due to a bit of an issue with the finances, but with the focus on making sure that consumers are protected, that there is business growth, and that there is a new strategy that will go forwards, do you think that you are resourced enough? I…”

“If I could just pick up on part of the strategy that you have, which is running from this year to 2029. Part of that is about promoting competition and spurring innovation, but it is also about levelling the playing field for businesses of all shapes and sizes to innovate and grow. In your mind, what do you think are t…”

“Do you think that “pro-business” can be a euphemism for deregulation? Do you subscribe to that concept?”

“We are quite interested in this, and the Government have given a useful and helpful prescription that the growth agenda is key and paramount. Therefore, regulators including the CMA are being encouraged to look at how they refocus. You have a strategy, but what we want to understand is how you think the CMA is going to…”

“T5. My constituents are forced to travel to Burton, Derby and Sutton Coldfield for their NHS treatment, which cannot be provided at the local community diagnostic centre. Some travel up to 30 miles for chemotherapy, with little or no public transport. What is the Minister doing to deliver healthcare investment locally …”

“One final question from me. It goes back to the question I asked before: when thinking about the pro-business agenda and what is impacting businesses, do you have thoughts on where those potential market investigations might be, and, in some of the most prominent areas where we know there is failure, can you share any …”

“In a five-year term, that would not give you very many, if that speed of things was going to give the public a better indicator of where you were focusing and were seeing some of the remedies. You are one of the regulators who has very strong powers to be able to make that change.”

“In June, we heard evidence from Emma and Hayley of the CMA. One thing they mentioned was that they thought they could do approximately three to four market investigations a year. Is that with this new artificial intelligence technology deployed to help to analyse huge amounts of data, or is that prior to that deploymen…”

“How does that feel in terms of tackling these beasts? Some of them are companies such as your former employer: extremely large companies with extremely complex operations. How is that going to work? How will you make sure that our constituents, the British public, get the best that they can out of the CMA?”