Post Office: Franchises
(asked on 29th May 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department keeps a formal record or minutes of the monthly financial monitoring meetings held between his Department, UK Government Investments and Post Office Limited to review funding requests relating to the franchising of formerly Directly Managed Branches.
Answered by
Blair McDougall
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department funds Post Office Limited’s (POL) Strategic Transformation Plan (STP), including activities to franchise former Directly Managed Branches.
Funding approvals are based on monthly requests from POL, detailing actual and forecast spend across all STP activity. These are analysed internally and informed by discussions at monthly financial monitoring meetings with POL. Outcomes from these discussions are reflected in advice to release funding.
Formal records or separate minutes are not kept for discussions specifically relating to the franchising of formerly Directly Managed Branches.