Urban Post Office Reinvention Programme — £210 million authorization — 15 Oct 2002 at 19:58
Andrew Mitchell MP, Sutton Coldfield voted in the minority (No).
The majority of MPs voted to authorize payment of £180 million to fund compensation payments to subpostmasters whose offices were being closed under a modernization process, and a further £30 million to make improvements to offices that remained.[1]
This was one stage of the plans outlined by a government report[2] that had been fully accepted.[3]
Funding was provided as "selective financial assistance" under a law that required Parliamentary approval for sums in excess of £10 million,[4] which explains why the motion that was passed read precisely:
- This House authorises the Secretary of State to pay, by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, in respect of the urban post office reinvention programme, a sum exceeding £10 million to Post Office Ltd.[5]
Nevertheless, it is unusual for appropriations to be authorized by specifying a lower bound only.
- [1] The Post Office network in urban areas, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
- [2] Counter Revolution - Modernising the Post Office Network, Performance and Innovation Unit, June 2000
- [3] The Post Office network - how Government policy has developed since 1997, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
- [4] Industrial Development Act 1982, Section 8.
- [5] The Minister for E-Commerce and Competitiveness (Mr. Stephen Timms), House of Commons, 15 October 2002.
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
Party | Majority (Aye) | Minority (No) | Both | Turnout |
Con | 0 | 124 (+2 tell) | 0 | 77.3% |
DUP | 0 | 3 | 0 | 60.0% |
Independent | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
Lab | 266 (+2 tell) | 0 | 0 | 65.4% |
LDem | 0 | 35 | 0 | 66.0% |
PC | 0 | 3 | 0 | 75.0% |
SNP | 0 | 4 | 0 | 80.0% |
UUP | 5 | 0 | 0 | 83.3% |
Total: | 271 | 170 | 0 | 68.8% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
Name | Constituency | Party | Vote | |
no rebellions |