asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications whether he will allow Mr. Richard King to continue to operate a mail delivery service.

My consent has not been sought by the Post Office.

Is my hon. Friend aware that the Post Office has threatened to prosecute Mr. Richard King for operating his Post-Haste messenger service, although that service is probably no more illegal than other services which are now being conducted by other organisations, such as Securicor and De La Rue? Is it not time that this Government acknowledged that a little competition is justified? Is the Post Office not using its monopoly powers in a rather coercive way?

Under the 1969 Act, the letter monopoly is vested in the Post Office. My hon. Friend will recognise that private companies would be bound to concentrate on the provision of services in and between major centres of population if the monopoly were totally abandoned, that that would leave the rest of the country to be served by the Post Office at greatly increased cost, and that that is presumably the reason why every country in the world operates its letter services as a public monopoly.

Bearing in mind the statutory monopoly that the Post Office has in the provision of postal services, will the Minister encourage the Post Office Corporation to take action against these pirate postal services, in the interests of the long-term security of employment of Post Office staff?

I am not aware that there is any appreciable threat to Post Office staff from this quarter. The Post Office has certainly not told me that there is any development of that kind.