Ms Carol Bolger:

I would hate to think that we would have a Santa Claus supply chain problem. It is very much an issue for the smaller retailers and consumers. It is a current problem and I think that we have to accept that. We are working to our utmost with Royal Mail to resolve the issue. The other challenge in the UK is that the Royal Mail and Post Office are two separate businesses. Royal Mail is a listed company. Even that entity is not like ourselves. All I can say is that we are doing our absolute best. Resolving this is the one thing that is exercising the leadership team's agenda at the moment. We are doing everything we can but the ultimate fix is not within our gift. We must collect the duties and unless these parcels and packages arrive in the right format, we have that challenge. I want to leave here today having let the committee know that we are serious about this issue. We are passionate about trying to resolve it. It is breaking our heart as an organisation that we are having complaints from people because it is not the way that we operate or want to operate but it is a very complex problem. We believe that in time it will resolve itself but at the moment it is a big issue.