Declarations of interest
Nigel Stapleton is a non-Executive Director on the Board of the Reliance Group. A subsidiary of the Reliance Group provides outsourced manned security guarding services to some of Royal Mail's sites though the contract is not directly with Royal Mail. The contract has a value for £1m per annum and this represents less than 0.5% of the Reliance Group's turnover.
Nigel Stapleton does not hold shares in the Reliance Group and therefore has no financial interest in the contract. The Board of the Reliance Group has no involvement in the bidding or award of contracts of this size by individual subsidiaries.
Mr Stapleton is an Independent Director of two operating subsidiaries of the recently formed SamrukKazyna National Prosperity Fund, which manages the State owned assets of Kazakhstan. The two operating subsidiaries are the electricity generation company - Samruk Energy - and the Kazak postal services provider - KazPost. KazPost has no operations within the EU and apart from the handling of cross border mail on tariffs that are agreed at the international level (which Postcomm has no regulatory responsibility for or involvement with) it has no business relationships with any UK licenced mail operator.
Tim Brown was employed by Royal Mail from 1994 to 2005 and has deferred benefits in the Royal Mail pension scheme. These deferred benefits are being transferred to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme
Tim's son Adam is employed by TNT Express. TNT Express is a separate business from the licenced postal operator TNT Post UK Ltd. TNT Express is not licenced or regulated by Postcomm.
Tony Cooper is the father of Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and father-in-law of Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
none.
Wanda Goldwag is an adviser to Smedvig Capital Limited ("Smedvig Capital"), a London-based private equity firm. Smedvig Capital invests predominantly in UK companies and has built a diversified portfolio of early stage and expansion capital investments, none of which is currently in the postal sector. However, Smedvig Capital is regulated by the Financial Services Authority and has a compliance officer who has been asked to draw Postcomm's attention to any developing relationship between Smedvig Capital and a company in the postal sector.
Ms Goldwag is also a director of three companies working in the human resources area:
- Challenge Consultancy Ltd, which provides face-to-face training and consultancy on diversity issues;
- You at Work Holdings Ltd, which provides flexible benefits and lifestyle rewards, and
- True North Human Capital Limited, a management consultancy serving the HR community in the arenas of talent management and executive search.
None of these companies currently has any clients involved in the postal sector. Ms Goldwag has asked Challenge Consultancy, You at Work and True North to alert her to any developing relationship between themselves and any company in the postal sector so that any potential conflicts of interest can be resolved.
Ms Goldwag is a director of Goldwag Consultancy Ltd which specialises in loyalty schemes, partnership management and consultancy. Goldwag Consultancy Ltd does not and will not have any clients in the postal sector.
In addition, Ms Goldwag is a non-executive director of the Performing Right Society Ltd. PRS works for its members - composers, lyricists and music publishers - to license the public performance and broadcast of copyright works, collect licence fees, assemble information about the use of that music, and then distribute royalties.
Stephen Littlechild, commissioner
none.
Simon Prior-Palmer, commissioner
none.
Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, commissioner
none
Stephen Gibson, director, economic policy
none.
Fran Gillon, director, universal service and customer protection
none.
Colin Sharples, directors, resources
none.
William Sprigge, chief legal adviser
none.
Peter Swattridge, director, regulatory finance
none.
The Commission does not believe that the interests listed above threaten the effectiveness or impartiality of these members or of the Commission as a whole.
