With jobs so rare and fast in decline, bright graduates coming off the production line are returning to low or unpaid work. Many have left the country in search of new and emerging markets that highly regard native English speakers.

Yet rarely do we see these graduates take a gamble and become captured by an entrepreneurial spirit and chisel their own path. One such graduate has recently started a rare business, a diplomatic consultancy “Grassroot Diplomat” to benefit greater society. Frustrated with the poor job market, 26 year-old Talyn Rahman-Figueroa showed courage to make her own way in the diplomatic world.

Born and raised in London to Bangladeshi parents, Talyn initially began her one woman diplomatic agency after a Foreign Office associate advised her to use her skills and expertise to compliment the work of diplomats and embassies.

Talyn studied Japanese and Management as her first degree, diplomacy for her Masters, and attained diplomatic training in Morocco, the European Union Commission and United Nations in New York.

Less than a year later, Talyn is now the Director of Grassroot Diplomat. The company motto of Grassroot Diplomat is to “bridge the gap between civil society and political decision-makers”. Given the big names associated with this agency, Grassroot Diplomat plans to make an impact on the international stage. Similar to the motives of Prime Minster David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, Grassroot Diplomat wants to give a voice to those in society who don’t have the influence or resources to effectively get their message across to powerful groups or institutions.

Over the years, Talyn has networked with influential political officials like former UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Labour Leader Ed Miliband and former US governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to advocate the necessity in closing the gap between governments and civil society. As an intermediary, Talyn has supported Nobel Laureate Muhammed Yunus in clearing his name against the smear campaign led by the Bangladeshi government.

Before her diplomatic training, Talyn was nominated onto the executive board of two UN-affiliated NGOs, dealing with issues regarding women’s rights, nuclear disarmament and climate change. Her work in relation to these topics has been published by American Diplomacy, Diplomatic Insight, the UK Defence Forum and many others. Since the launch of Grassroot Diplomat in August 2011, Talyn now manages a team of 14 to include two former diplomats and is supporting policy-related projects based in Canada, Ghana, Pakistan and the UK. If you would like more information or to schedule an interview with Talyn Rahman-Figueroa, please email Howie Shawki at media@grassrootdiplomat.org or call 077 3207 8550.

A New ‘VISIONARY’ London Mayor for 2012?

Bill Maloney (55) born and bred in London, will be fighting against the ‘political machine’ and will be an independent, passionate and fair voice for 55% of disillusioned London voters who have never bothered to cast their votes for the top-dog disengaged 3-Party nominees who they can’t relate to and never speak for them. As an award winning documentary filmmaker Maloney connects with his fellow London citizens at street level and is gathering a huge swell of loyal supporters urging him to speak on their behalf and represent them at the London Assembly.

Visit: www.mayoroflondon.me.uk read the radical Manifesto and follow the journey of Bill Maloney for London Mayor on his trek to represent the normal hard working citizens of Greater London. He’s bringing the ‘human’ element into his campaign by promoting visionary effective measures to cut financial waste, boost enterprise, engage with the disillusioned and help the homeless and vulnerable in our City under the spotlight of the 2012 Olympics.

Make sure you’re REGISTERED TO VOTE and have your say on 3rd of May.

The Parliamentary Information Office of the Parliamentary Yearbook is currently gathering news items for major features on apprenticeships in the next edition.

In February 2011, coinciding with Apprenticeship Week, the coalition government provided the following statistics regarding the take-up of the apprentices programme:

• Jaguar Landrover were creating 1,500 new apprenticeship places
• BT were offering 250 apprenticeship places across the group
• Morrison’s supermarket chain were set to offer 7,000 places • Proctor and Gamble were recruiting 10 apprentice accountants
• 180 people had gained skills at higher education level by taking higher apprenticeships.

The number of people taking higher apprenticeships testifies to the programmes ability to progress apprentices from Intermediate and Advanced Levels to a level comparable with a university degree, with graduation ceremonies for apprentices and their families together with an apprentice roll of honour.

The Higher Apprenticeships Fund, announced in July 2011 with an allocation of £25mn to support advanced and higher apprenticeships in key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, IT and engineering, is designed to assist this progression. The fund is part of an apprentices’ investment package totalling £180mn, for which, from 22 July 2011, companies have been invited to bid.

In the current financial year, the government has committed itself to funding approximately 360,000 apprenticeships. To encourage employers to take on larger numbers of apprentices, red tape and bureaucracy have been cut and the overall process simplified.

Companies that contract directly with the government regarding their apprenticeship training requirements have simplified payment, reporting and assessment procedures together with improved guidance.

On 24 October 2011, provisional figures boded well for the apprenticeships programme: apprenticeship starts for the academic year 2010-11 had risen by more than 50 per cent compared with final figures from 2009-10; and apprenticeship numbers had risen across all age ranges and levels of training.

Statistics indicate final data for 2009-10 of 279,700 apprenticeship starts compared to 442,700 starts in the full academic year 2010-11. The largest sectors were:

• Business, administration and law: 130,290 apprenticeship starts (76,590 in 2009-10)

• Retail and commercial enterprise:100,630 apprenticeship starts (61,620 in 2009-10)

• Health, public services and care: 86,120 apprenticeship starts (44,150 in 2009-10).

In October 2011, £20mn was invested to boost skills and drive growth in key industries. The government match funded £11mn following the first round of bids to the Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF), with more apprenticeships playing a key role in the government’s vision of business identifying how skills can drive growth.

Sectors which benefited immediately from GIF funding, and which also stand to benefit from co-investment from employer groups, were: renewable energy; hospitality; science-based industries; energy and utility bills; creative industries; active leisure; environmental industries; employment services; nuclear; health; and creative and cultural skills.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said, “Sustained economic recovery will depend on our ability to excel in the high-tech skills that our most innovative companies need to compete in the globalised economy.

“That is why this government is committed to skilling up our workforce through work-based training. By providing concentrated seed funding for employer-led projects that attract further investment from business, we’re targeting money where it will be best placed to drive growth.”

This was submitted by the Parliamentary Information Office. For more information on the Parliamentary Information Office please visit http://parliamentaryyearbook.co.uk/contactus.html

Thousands of people in Sandwell with postal votes are being urged to provide elections chiefs with up-to-date signatures.

They have over a month to do so – or face losing their right to vote by post.

Sandwell has about 23,500 people registered to vote by post.

The law says that the signature used to verify the vote has to be updated after five years.

This currently applies to just under a half of Sandwell’s postal voters.

They have all now been sent a form to return to elections chiefs with a fresh signature.

“We have written to about 11,000 people to request them to provide an up-to-date signature,” said Mr Jan Britton, Sandwell’s chief executive and returning officer.

“They need to return their form quickly so their postal vote is not cancelled. They have until 13 March to do so.”

The move comes well in advance of local elections, due to take place on Thursday 3 May.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce today endorsed the campaign for an elected mayor for the city.

The Chamber’s elected council gave their backing by an overwhelming majority. The vote came just before Greg Clark, the Cities Minister, visited the Chamber in Edgbaston to announce that a referendum to decide if the city wanted an elected mayor would be held on May 3.

If the answer is yes, an election will take place on November 15 – the same day as an election for a city police commissioner.

Chamber president Michael Ward said: “There was a clear message from the Chamber council that it is in favour of an elected mayor for Birmingham but wants clarity on devolved powers.

“The challenge now is for the Chamber to lead the campaign on behalf of the city’s business community and others.

“Greg Clark’s message went a long way to explaining the government’s position on devolved powers.

“He said the government would expect an elected mayor to tell them what powers were required. He added that there would be a powershift on issues like transport, capital expenditure, skills and apprentices and homes and communities.

“This was extremely encouraging and we shall by working to get this message over to Birmingham businesses and the wider community.”

Interview requests:

For interviews on this press release, please call Birmingham Chamber Group’s media hotline: 0121 450 4228.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group:

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group is one of the UK’s oldest and largest Chambers. It has nearly 3,000 member companies that employ over 200,000 plus affiliate organisations representing  15,000 people. It offers extensive services to industry and commerce, having served the interests of business for nearly three centuries, promoting trade locally, nationally and internationally.

Members of Birmingham Chamber Group: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Burton & District Chamber, Chase Chamber, Lichfield & Tamworth Chamber, Solihull Chamber, The Institute of Asian Businesses, British American Business Council and the Chamber Executive Club.

Jakarta valentineantiradar.com – The U.S. put a missile defense anti radar radar in Israel a year earlier than the scheduled plan to enhance regional defenses against ballistic missiles. Placement of the anti radar radar system comes amid rising concerns about the nuclear programs of Iran and the missile and the statements of Iranian leaders who threatened to eliminate Israel.

“The system has arrived in Israel. anti radar radar that will enhance and expand missile defense capabilities in the region, and serves as an anti radar dote to the attack,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder. About 120 U.S. military personnel are also involved in the placement of missiles and 40 people of which he is required to operate and maintain the anti radar radar.

The Pentagon previously scheduled the placement of the anti radar radar in Israel in the fall of 2009 for use in exercises with the people of Israel. The U.S. put a similar anti radar radar in Japan in 2006 as a response to North Korea’s missile testing.

AN/TPY2 anti radar radar, also known as X-band anti radar radar, designed to track ballistic missile warheads in space and provide ground missile target data required for an ambush. Ryder said the missile was one of the most powerful systems available to track medium-range missiles to far.

“Data from the system will be given to the Israeli missile defense system, but the anti radar radar will remain owned and operated by the U.S.,” added Ryder. He did not explain where the anti radar radar was placed, but reports said that the system is installed in the Negev Desert.

The anti radar radar system was deployed in Israel when the U.S. and its allies are increasingly concerned about Iran’s nuclear program and threats of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel. Ahmadinejad has attracted international condemnation in the last three years with a statement of his anti radar-Israeli and dubious historical dimensions of the Holocaust (slaughter the Jews) in World War II. However, he still rejected the accusations of anti radar-Jewish.

“The Holocaust is a lie and the Holocaust really happened to the Palestinians,” he said recently, reiterating his antagonistic toward the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran never recognized the sovereignty of the state of Israel and Palestine continue to defend both politically and spirit until the liberation of the territories they occupied.

“Zionist regime (Israel) was heading for the final collapse after 60 years of aggression. The final solution was a referendum on the future fate of Palestine with the participation of all Palestinians, regardless of whether they are Muslim, Jew or Christian,” said the Iranian president.

Speakers:
Chair: Graham Beech, Strategic Development Director, Nacro

Keynote: Darra Singh OBE, Chair, Independent Riots Communities and Victims Panel

Assistant Chief Constable Julian Kirby, Territorial Policing, South Wales Police

Donna McCarthy, Partner, Devonshires

Robyn Fairman, Assistant Chief Executive, Westminster City Council

Chris Reed, Assistant Director Operations, Three Rivers Housing

Chief Superintendent Christopher Bourlet, Crime and Customer Strategy Unit, Metropolitan Police Service

Paul Bott, Operations Director North, Catch-22

Capita’s National Conference: What Next for Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour? brings together influential national and local stakeholders to address the review into ASB powers, the impact of the response to the riots and exciting innovations in provision, including new family recovery pilots funded on a payment by results basis.

Methods and legal recourse for tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) have been under government scrutiny and review in the past year. The Summer’s riots have increased public demands for tougher sentencing and evictions for perpetrators, better protection for vulnerable victims, while at the same time, demonstrating how resilient communities can mitigate the worst effects of ASB. Faster, more flexible response to ASB offences, and more accountability to the communities affected, are now high on the political agenda.

Website:

http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/public-sector-conferences/police-criminal-justice/full-conference/article/what-next-for-tackling-anti-social-behaviour.html?code=SMMK Brochure:

http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/pdfgen.html?filename=What_Next_for_Tackling_Anti-Social_Behaviour_WOPDF.pdf&code=SMMK Contact: Ben Aslet – 020 7960 7711/ ben.aslet@capita.co.uk

A specialist panel set up by the government to look into the problem of the obesity epidemic including possible solutions has been disbanded (British Medical Journal – article). It seems the government didn’t like the advise it was getting and so has decided to silence the out spoken committee by sacking all it’s members. Opting instead for the softly softly ‘nudge’ tactics – Healthy lives, healthy people: a call to action on obesity in England

The group set up by the last Labour government as part of recommendations coming out of the Foresight Report, which went far beyond education about personal food choices but included legislation, taxes and tighter controls on the food and drinks manufacturers. The panel was only too aware of the scale of the obesity problem, describing it as ‘akin to global warming’.

Ex member Klim McPherson said “Ministers were more inclined to involve food and drinks companies than scientific experts”.

Panel experts also expressed disappointment at Andrew Lansley’s announcement for anti obesity measures to focus on eating less and exercising more.

Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott, said: “It is becoming clear that Andrew Lansley’s number one priority is pleasing his friends in big business”.

TV chef Jamie Oliver said of the policy ” This whole strategy is worthless, regurgitated, patronising rubbish”

Prof McPherson also went on to say “I think it was just naive frankly. People are controlled by their environment and the food industry has discovered it can make quite a lot of money selling junk food all over the place.”

Other panel members Professors Tim Lang and Geof Rayner, wrote in the BMJ that the policy is a “smokescreen” for “publicly endorsed marketing”. The strategy could become “collusion between the state and corporations to hoodwink consumers. At least nannies are overt.”

Professor Lang goes on to explain:

The closure of the expert advisory group is bad news all round, bad politics, bad policy, and bad science. It shuts the door on an important attempt by the state to recognise the systemic nature of what drives obesity…It’s plain as a pikestaff that obesity requires systems change, not a tweak here and there, yet that is what is being offered.

Well what is becoming absolutely clear is that real help for the overweight, as well a real solution to the obesity epidemic is coming no time soon, pretty frustrating for us though expected given previous and current policy.

This is a real shame as the solution at least in principle is a simple one. Combat sugar addiction born in processed foods and the problem will become a thing of the past. However when you consider who has their fingers in whose pies the solution can never be simple.

We are not saying the the obesity panel had it all right as they were in favour of legislation over education. It cannot be right to withhold information about the addictive and damaging effects of a food and then make it harder or more expensive to obtain. Simply increasing costs or telling them to eat less is a policy waiting to fail. The majority of the population has a problem that they are totally oblivious too.

The man (or woman) in the street is simply not aware why he gets tired in the afternoon, why he’s hungry shortly after eating, why he gets brain fog, why he get’s depressed, why his libido is low, why despite eating low fat, low calorie he continues to gain weight, why he’s ended up with type II diabetes…or worse!

Related articles

Energy In and Energy Out (paleoworks.wordpress.com)
Fat Cat Cameron’s Battle of the Bulge Blunder (paleoworks.wordpress.com)
Global Obesity Pandemic – Lancet articles & related articles (including press coverage) (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
Government obesity panel quietly abolished (telegraph.co.uk)
Obesity advisory group disbanded by government (guardian.co.uk)

On 30 September 2011 Dave Hartnett was Interviewed by the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) on the new Tax Agreement Between UK and Swiss Governments to Crack Down on Offshore Tax Evasion by UK Taxpayers…

In the interview for CIOT’s website – www.tax.org.uk – John Whiting, CIOT Tax Policy Director questions Dave Hartnett, the Permanent Secretary of Tax and Gary Ashford, Director at accountancy firm RSM Tenon Ltd and Chairman of CIOT’s Management of Taxes Sub-Committee, on the UK and Switzerland tax agreement signing to tackle offshore tax evasion.

CIOT have released a podcast of the UK-Swiss tax agreement interview on their website.
In the interview Dave Hartnett says that the new tax deal was arranged between the UK and Switzerland because HMRC did not think Switzerland would change their banking secrecy rules anytime soon, so another approach was looked for.

Describing the agreement as a ‘ratchet’ deal, Hartnett says that “the more successful HMRC is in identifying people who have additional tax liability to pay, the greater the number of people [HMRC] will be able to search for.”

From March 2011 Switzerland agreed to adopt article 26 – Exchange of Information – of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Double Tax Convention, which states:

‘The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall exchange such information as is necessary for carrying out the provisions of this Convention or of the domestic laws concerning taxes of every kind and description imposed on behalf of the Contracting States, or of their political subdivisions or local authorities, insofar as the taxation thereunder is not contrary to the Convention.’

Article 26 from Articles of the Model Convention with respect to Taxes on Income and Capital [as they read on 28 January 2003]

Any information that is exchanged between governments under article 26 should be kept confidential and only disclosed to people and authorities who are ‘concerned with the assessment or collection of, the enforcement or prosecution in respect of, or the determination of appeals in relation to the taxes referred to’.

This means that the new tax agreement between the UK and Switzerland will allow HMRC to request specific information from Swiss authorities should the Revenue have ‘reason to be worried’ about UK residents investing in Switzerland.

When asked on the ‘information power’ HMRC get out of the ‘ratchet’ deal, Hartnett says:

“What this extended provision will do is that, in future, if we needed to ask about you, the Swiss will search their banking system – the whole banking system – and provide us with everything they actually know about you, so we would get a lot of information.”

Hartnett also makes clear that honest UK taxpayers with insurance investments in Switzerland will not be affected by the new withholding tax. His advice for them is that “disclosure is always the right answer”.

For UK taxpayers who have always been ‘honest’ about their investments in Switzerland then HMRC will “confirm to them that we know all about them, and Swiss banks will then not apply withholding to them.”

Hartnett thinks that “maybe no more than 20% of UK residents investing in Switzerland” are potentially innocent of tax dodging.

For UK residents currently holding undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland, Hartnett says that they are faced with one of three options:

• “suffer the withholding”

• “make a disclosure to HMRC” – by direct disclosure to HMRC or through the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF); or

• “They can ‘go to hell’. And ‘go to hell’ means taking your money out of Switzerland and taking it somewhere else.”

For those choosing option three, “one of the lesser known aspects of this agreement is that the Swiss will be supplying the UK with details of the top 10 destinations where funds leave Switzerland, and that will help us target our next initiative”, Hartnett adds.

When asked by Whiting if it is a ‘fair summary’ that ‘hiding places are disappearing’, Hartnett agrees:

“I think it is. It might take us a little longer to get an absolute position of no hiding place, but the hiding places are disappearing. And I think investors really do need to think very carefully, because the hiding places that are disappearing are the ones that people thought were very secure, and the ones that… what’s a good word for it… the ones that are a bit dodgy are the ones that are left.”

When asked about an allegation that the UK-Swiss tax arrangement ‘lets fraudsters off’, Hartnett responds:

“I don’t think it does let fraudsters off, because we weren’t going to catch them anyway, particularly tax fraudsters. We don’t know who they are. We don’t know what they’ve done. We don’t think banking secrecy will disappear in Switzerland at any time in the foreseeable future, certainly not in the next 10 years. So what we are doing is collecting back taxes from people who we couldn’t identify. And at a time when our nation has a deficit it seemed like a very sensible thing to be doing.

“You need to bear in mind that we know a huge amount more about UK residents with money in Switzerland than we knew about 5 years ago.

“But not everyone who has committed some sort of money crime will be able to benefit from withholding. Those who have been in organised crime, organised tax crime like carousel fraud, may well have money taken from them, but it will be regarded as a payment on account rather than creating finality.”

John Whiting then asks if “this opens up the possibility of a real investigation…”

“Absolutely. Another serious money crime that doesn’t involved tax, where money is taken, we will regard that as a payment on account of tax and not creating finality as well. These are important exceptions”, Hartnetts says.

And for the treatment of ‘non-doms’ investing money in Switzerland, a resident in the UK who is not domiciled there, Hartnett has made clear that the new tax agreement has negotiated:

“If non domiciled individuals are not straightforward with [HMRC] in relation to their tax affairs we will prioritise criminal investigations of people in that position. It is just important that people know where they stand.”

Another important question asked by Whiting is how much the new tax deal agreement between the UK and Switzerland is expected to yield:

“It’s very difficult to be precise. The expectation is somewhere in the range of four to seven billion pounds,” says Hartnett.

Hartnett says that the sum in question – £4bn – £7bn – was calculated in three different ways:

• “The Swiss Banking Association got a big four firm to carry out an assurance process over the Swiss Banking Association’s estimate of the amount,” which was between £4bn-£7bn,

• HMRC analysts also carried out an exercise in that number range; and

• External specialists came out with a figure slightly above that range.

“So that gives us some assurance, I think, that four to seven billion is the right range, and there’s been a lot of speculation in the media that five billion is the number,” Hartnett confirms.

“No-one knows what the number will really be because you’d have to examine every single bank account with full knowledge of every investor, but it’s in the range.”

Commenting on the UK and Swiss signing of a new tax agreement, Gary Ashford, CIOT’s Management of Taxes Sub-Committee, said:

“This is clearly the most significant step to date in HMRC negotiating agreements with offshore financial centres, which will ultimately lead to them identifying many UK citizens with assets in Switzerland or, where they prefer anonymity, at least the assurance of a contribution towards the tax gap by way of a withholding tax. “We are entering a new chapter in the area of international tax compliance,” Ashford adds.

In summary, the CIOT’s interview with Dave Hartnett on the new UK-Swiss Tax agreement has concluded:

• £4bn – £7bn is expected to be yielded by the UK-Swiss tax deal,

• HMRC believe that only 20% of UK residents with investments in Switzerland are ‘potentially innocent’,

• ‘non-doms’ will be given specific arrangements but will be prioritised for criminal prosecution should they not be straightforward about their taxes,

• Swiss banks will provide HMRC with the ‘top 10 destinations’ tax evaders move their money out too, allowing HMRC to decide where they target next; and

• Secure ‘hiding places’ for tax evaders ‘are disappearing’ and the only ones left are the ‘ones that are a bit dodgy’.

The new withholding tax agreement signed by the UK and Switzerland will come into place as of 2013.

Kevin Kinsella, of KinsellaTax Investigations, said:

“In the interests of bringing the latest news in HMRC investigations work I would like to thank George Crozier of the Chartered Institute of Taxation for allowing us at KinsellaTax permission to quote their article from their website. I think the article does give an insight into HMRC thoughts on the new tax agreement with Switzerland.

“Anyone caught by the new taxation agreement needs to consider their actions as time appears to be running out for persistent tax evaders and the matter will only get worse; Although, Tax Justice Network (TJN) has produced a study of the UK-Swiss Tax Agreement which does show some very large holes in the agreement.”

“We at KinsellaTax are proud of our reputation of being able to deal with the most serious and complicated cases,” Kevin added.

•Analysis of international postal markets shows competition is key to success of USO
•TNT Post calls on Ofcom, the new postal regulator to back removal of VAT distortion London, September 28 2011: With postal industry regulation passing to Ofcom from Postcomm on 1 October 2011, new research has found that competition within the postal sector improves the ability of a national postal service provider to meets its Universal Service Obligation (USO). Findings from a survey carried out by the respected postal consultancy, WIK-Consult, on the European countries that have already seen much higher levels of postal delivery competition than in the UK, demonstrate that there has been a positive impact on the incumbent postal service provider’s ability to deliver to every household within its territory over the past ten years.

In addition, the research found that competition has been a catalyst for modernisation of the postal service, to meet the changing needs of the consumer and the challenges faced from electronic substitution.

Head of WIK-Consult’s postal unit, Alex Dieke, concluded that: “In the four countries studied in our report, we believe end-to-end competition has helped to achieve a sustainable universal service and, indeed, improve universal service quality, by putting pressure on incumbent operators to modernise”.

TNT Post UK, the largest private sector postal operator in the UK, which has long held ambitions to launch a competing end-to-end service to Royal Mail, calls upon Ofcom to set a regulatory regime which protects fair competition from both access and end-to-end services and to back its campaign for a level competitive landscape in the UK. Currently, Royal Mail is exempt from charging VAT on its business mail services. This makes it uncompetitive for companies like TNT Post UK to compete fully as the financial and charity sectors which account for half of business mail volumes are unable to recover VAT.

The findings also reinforce TNT Post UK’s position that a strong regulator is essential to ensure that competition thrives and that customers have real choice in the UK.

Nick Wells, CEO TNT Post UK, commented:
“The report findings will help allay fears that competition will have a detrimental impact on the ability of Royal Mail to meet its obligation to deliver to every household in the UK. In addition, zonal pricing for business mail where we pay more for the company to deliver in more rural areas will ensure the survival of the USO.

“We want a strong Royal Mail but it has to modernise to meet the needs of the market today and in the future and also be open to competitive forces that will ensure its future efficiency and prosperity.

“With Ofcom taking over regulation of the postal industry, we call upon on it to back our fight to get a level competitive playing field in the UK which will enable us to make the business case to invest millions in an end to end service as well as thousands of new jobs.”
– Ends –

Note to Editors

The survey was prepared by WIK-Consult between June and August 2011 on behalf of TNT Post and analyses experience in those European postal markets which have seen most postal delivery competition in the past ten years: Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

About TNT Post
TNT Post is the second largest UK postal company and has the resources to deliver both addressed and unaddressed items. It currently handles more than 200 million items a month.
Since the liberalisation of the UK postal market on 1st January 2006, TNT Post has continued to impress businesses and public sector organisations in the UK with its innovative, sophisticated mailing services that bring unrivalled value and flexibility to clients. TNT Post’s high profile wins in the addressed mail market include BT and Centrica.
TNT Post has in a short period of time impressed businesses and public sector organisations with its innovation, high-level service approach and cutting-edge technology investments. It has achieved some significant wins across sectors such as banking, utilities, leisure and media. TNT Post, formerly TNT Mail, was established in early 2003 and signed its downstream access agreement in April 2004 and began operations in late August 2004. Since its launch, it has developed a number of products for customers including Premier, Premier Sort and PremierSort Flex. For more information on these services please visit www.tntpost.co.uk.

About PostNL
Annually PostNL processes 8.8 billion addressed postal items (including 100 million parcels) and delivers to more than 88 million addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. PostNL’s main business is mail, parcels and e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNL employs some 77,000 people. In 2010 the company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros

For further information, please contact:
TNT Post
Eimear Galvin: 020 7332 2306
Email: tntpost@owlms.com