ISLANDS MSP URGES CONSTITUENTS TO SHARE EXPERIENCES

Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MSP Alasdair Allan is urging his constituents to share their experiences of unfair delivery charges to the islands as the Scottish Government prepares to launch a Scottish Parcel Delivery Map.

While the power to regulate parcel deliveries lies with the UK Government, on November 18 the Scottish Government launched Fairer Deliveries for All: An Action Plan, which focuses on tackling unfair practices, and understanding the root causes of why such over-charging exists.

One of the actions in this plan is the development of a Scottish Parcel Delivery Map, which will allow the Scottish Government to track both discrepancies between and within geographic areas, as well as identifying where there are significant deviations. This map will be publicly available and will be the first of its kind in the UK.

Alasdair Allan MSP commented:

“People in the Western Isles are amongst the most affected by unfair delivery practises, with research from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre estimating that consumers here paid £2.66 million in delivery surcharges every year.

“I am pleased that the Scottish Government is taking action to try and highlight unfair practices and geographical discrepancies – especially since this is an area of responsibility reserved to the UK Government.

“For this tool to be successful it will need a wide base of examples to draw from. I would encourage all of my constituents who have encountered unfair delivery practices fill in the survey at http://www.resolver.co.uk/parcels and help demonstrate the scale of the problem we have.”