Royal Mail

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 30 January 2024.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:16, 30 January 2024

Well, Llywydd, Carolyn Thomas makes a very important point at the end of her supplementary question. I said in my original answer that one of the two key points that the Deputy Minister will be conveying next week are general Welsh needs—. And a universal postal service inevitably means that you get the same service if you are hard to provide that service to, if you live remotely and it's inevitably more expensive, as if you live in a densely-populated inner city area, where it's much easier to provide that service; that's the nature of an universal service and we will be making that point. But we'll also be making points on behalf of those vulnerable individuals in our community. We know our health services are used far more by people later on in life than people who are earlier on. We know that those people are, on the whole, less likely to use digital means of communication. It's fantastic that the health service uses text messaging and other things to remind people of appointments, but, if you don't operate in that world, you rely on the letter coming through the door, and if you're only getting a letter on three days of the week the chances are far too high that someone will not get an appointment or not know about their appointment in good time to be able to make the necessary arrangements to be able to keep that appointment. Those are really important points for the most vulnerable people in our society and the Minister will be conveying that point very directly to the regulator.

Minister

Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.