Draft Post Office Network Subsidy Scheme (Amendment) Order 2024

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Wednesday 17th April 2024 General Committees

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. First, I congratulate the Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) on his promotion. Since the explanatory memorandum was laid, he was recognised by the Prime Minister, so well done to him on that. On the wider point about Horizon, he has been a deft Minister and a doughty champion for postmasters and sub-postmasters. I am conscious there is an ongoing inquiry and that the Government are already legislating. Many of the comments made here today echo people’s concerns about what has happened.

I rise to speak about the rural network. The Minister set out that there are about 11,000 offices, about 6,000 of which are rural branches. I am happy for the Minister to clarify, but it is my understanding that a current subsidy of about £50 million goes to rural post offices; and I do not believe that has changed over many years. As a consequence, and with a combination of rising prices and similar, in trying to be efficient the Post Office is looking for opportunities to try to keep services going—to the expense of some of my constituents.

The SNP shadow spokesperson, the hon. Member for Gordon, already referred to how, with bank branches closing, the Post Office is increasingly picking up that usage by many customers. That lends itself to expecting money from the banks, whether through banking hubs or some other way of helping with equipment, but I think we should understand and get some transparency about what is happening with the subsidy we are voting on today. I am conscious that most of it is to do with Horizon, but not exclusively so, and that is where I think some more transparency would be helpful.

In my constituency, there is a village called Kelsale, which is about a mile away from Saxmundham. The latter is a small market town where there is a post office combined with a pharmacy, unlike in Kelsale, where there is an outreach service undertaken by the current sub-postmaster—that is just about to change—in the heart of the village hall in a secure setting. During the service’s one session a week, there are on average 22 transactions. Yet, because of Kelsale’s distance from Saxmundham—apparently, there is a bus every other hour—that service is being dropped. I have already met the Minister and I appreciate that he has been diligent in raising the matter with the Post Office, but I will do so again to try to get an answer about transparency.

I know that the Post Office is already saving money by switching the outreach service to a mobile van. I am pleading for a simple stop on the route for an hour a week, and recognise that elsewhere on the outreach service communities are getting fewer hours during which a sub-postmaster will attend. I understand and appreciate that we are dealing with about seven or eight transactions a week, or at best 30, but that is what the subsidy is there for and, in particular, why I am singling out Kelsale. It is also about recognising that not every constituency can be considered in the same way.

[The Chair]

Order. I remind the right hon. Member that the scope of the order covers the increase in the cap and not specific issues in her constituency.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Coffey]

I hear what you say, Ms Vaz, and I will bring my argument back to that. I am trying to say that my constituents in Kelsale deserve some more of that increase in the cap.

[The Chair]

That is a separate discussion for the Minister.

[Dr Coffey]

As a consequence, one of the things I also want to highlight is that I do not think the Post Office gives adequate responses to Members in its discussion of the subsidies and how they are being used. That really matters—not just that it answers the Minister but that the Post Office is accountable in the process. Instead of just putting “strictly private and confidential” on letters and information I already had, it needs to show what that subsidy is costing.

Ultimately, I am here today to vote for the motion because I believe the Minister knows that the Post Office needs more money, but I want to make sure that that money is being well spent and is being put there for the purposes for which we vote. One of those is maintaining rural branches. With the 50% increase in the cap from £500 million, we are talking three quarters of a billion pounds that is going to be made available to the Post Office in subsidy for branches. I believe that rural branches, particularly in the community of Kelsale, deserve a modest proportion of that in order to keep post offices operating right across the country.