Examination of Witnesses (Questions 57-59)
JONATHAN EVANS, MOELWYN JONES, DAVID MILLER AND DAVID MILLS
WEDNESDAY 1 MAY 2002
Chairman
57. Good afternoon. Perhaps you could start off by introducing yourselves, and tell us what you do with Consignia. It may be worth explaining why we have not got the same people that we had last time, before us, and I am sure there have been reasons for that. Who would like to start; would you like to kick off, Mr Evans?
(Mr Evans) Yes. I am Jonathan Evans. I am the Company Secretary of Consignia, that is the overall holding company for the whole group. Can I introduce, on my left, David Mills, who is the new Chief Executive of Post Office Ltd. David has recently joined us, middle of April, from HSBC bank. And the last time, I think, we had an appearance before you, it was Stuart Sweetman who was the Managing Director; he is now looking after our strategy development within Consignia. And on David's left is another David, David Miller, whom I think you have seen before, Executive Director of Post Office Ltd, who has got responsibility for the operation of the post office network. And on my right, over here, whom I do not think has been, I am pretty sure has not been, to the Committee before, but may well be known to some of you Welsh MPs, is Moelwyn Jones, who is our Head of Welsh Affairs in our Public Affairs Unit in Cardiff, and handles a lot of relations with Welsh Assembly, the politicians generally, opinion-formers, customers, and so on, and also, importantly, gives us feedback as to how views about us are being seen in Wales.
Chairman: Thank you very much.
Mrs Williams
58. You have kindly supplied us with a memorandum[9] of evidence which includes an Appendix listing the post office branches which were open in Wales as at December 2001, I think the date is, on this; you have asked us to treat this as confidential. Obviously, this has been omitted from the copies distributed in the public gallery. We are, as a Committee, slightly puzzled as to why a list of post offices in Wales should be confidential; could you explain? And could I add a question on to that. The list I have here, this so-called "confidential" list, it is all a jumbled list and, according to the page numbers, it starts on page 1, page 3, page 5, page 7, page 9, page 11, 13, 15, 17, all odd numbers; and I would like to ask why, because I am slightly puzzled, as are my colleagues, about this confidential list that you have supplied us with?
(Mr Evans) I understand. David is going to answer that.
(Mr Mills) Chairman, Mrs Williams, I am sorry, I cannot explain why the page numbering is incorrect. Forgive me, I have not been responsible for preparing those pages, but I will find out and I will come back to you after the meeting, if I may.
59. Can I just intervene here, Chairman. You are familiar with the memorandum and what we have been given?
(Mr Mills) Yes, of course I am.
9 Not printed see page 3. Back
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