Urban Post Office Reinvention Programme — £210 million authorization — 15 Oct 2002 at 19:58

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.

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |