LABOUR CANDIDATE EXPRESSES CONCERNS OVER LONG TERM FUTURE OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION

18th March 2015

John Erskine, Scottish Labour candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in May's General Election, has expressed concerns over the long term future of the universal service obligation (USO) provide by the Royal Mail.

This comes after a report by the UK Parliament's Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) committee which warned that although the universal service was not currently under threat, this could change in a rapidly changing postal market and that Ofcom needed to protect the Royal Mail in a market which is experiencing a battle for lowest price competition. Currently the Universal Service Obligations means that the postal service is available to everyone living United Kingdom, delivering at the same cost and with the same standard. If the Universal Service Obligation was lost, those in rural areas like the Highlands could face similar prices from Royal Mail that they face from other couriers service with some rural communities already been charged up to 500 per cent more than the standard delivery rate by private courier companies

John Erskine said: "It deeply concerning that the Committee report believes that Ofcom needs to have a plan to protect the USO. The USO is vital to an area like ours as it means that local people do not have to pay over the odds when using the Royal Mail. It is bad enough that they face such high charges from other delivery companies. There can be no denying that this risk is due to the privatisation of the Royal Mail and it having to compete for profits instead of providing local people with a service. When I and the local Labour Party were campaigning with the CWU’s Save Our Royal Mail campaign, we warned that the universal service may come under risk. Yet this was ignored by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats as they went ahead and privatised our oldest public service."

"If elected to represent Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross I will fight for the USO. I know how important it is to local people and local businesses. I will fight to get private delivery companies to reduce their delivery prices to our area. Local people must stop being punished by this Government for living in the Highlands."