Post Office Services — Welcomes £2 billion investment — 24 Mar 2004 at 16:15

The majority of MPs voted for the motion:[1]

  • This House
  • supports the Government's strategy to modernise the way benefits and pensions are paid, and to provide customers with a choice of accounts;
  • welcomes the fact that with Direct Payment customers will still be able to collect their cash from the Post Office if they wish using a current account or basic bank account with Post Office access or the Post Office Card Account;
  • notes the Government's plans for a cheque payment, cashable at post offices, for people who cannot be paid through an account;
  • recognises that Direct Payment is a more modern, efficient and secure method of payment which will also help increase financial inclusion;
  • welcomes the fact that more customers are now paid through an account than by order book without problems, including nearly six million pensioners;
  • notes the previous government's attempt to introduce a Benefit Payment Card, which wasted millions of pounds of tax-payers' money;
  • notes the fact that the Post Office had not until recently kept up with changes in customer demand and so had seen transaction volumes dropping and losses increasing;
  • recognises the need for change and congratulates the Government for taking decisive action to help turn the business around;
  • welcomes the record £2 billion investment in the Post Office network over a five-year period, including £450 million for the rural network and £210 million to modernise the urban network; and
  • believes that this will help ensure a viable Post Office network that people will want to use.

This motion was preceded by an earlier motion critical of the Government that was voted down by a majority of MPs.[2]

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |

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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.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con0 133 (+2 tell)083.3%
DUP0 3050.0%
Independent0 1050.0%
Independent Conservative0 1050.0%
Lab297 (+2 tell) 0073.3%
LDem0 45083.3%
PC0 40100.0%
SNP0 4080.0%
UUP0 50100.0%
Total:297 196076.7%

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

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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