Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, over what period the proposed network subsidy to the Post Office would last.

The Government provides a network subsidy so that Post Office can cover the costs of delivering Government policy requirements, which include geographical access criteria. In order to fulfil the access criteria, Post Office has to keep uncommercial branches open. The network subsidy is to help the company to afford to do this. The network subsidy does not fund costs relating to the implementation of Post Office's transformation plan, which includes transitioning to a fully franchised network. Government provided POL with £10.9m of funding in FY 24/25 to help initiate the transformation plan. Further multi-year funding for the transformation plan is currently being considered.

Government has confirmed up to £83 million network subsidy for Financial Year 25/26. Funding beyond this will be confirmed as part of the upcoming Spending Review.