1 Introduction
1. Earlier this year we looked at the post office
closures under the "Network Change Programme", which
is intended to make the network more sustainable by closing up
to 2,500 post offices.[1]
Our aim was to examine how the programme was being implemented,
and if necessary, to make proposals for its improvement. Responses
to the Committee's Third Report on the Post Office Closure Programme
from Postwatch, the Government and Post Office Ltd are published
as appendices to this Report. We are also publishing several letters
from BERR and Post Office Ltd responding to specific questions
from the Committee and evidence relating to this and our earlier
Report.
2. The Network Change Programme is progressing fast;
our earlier Report suggested ways in which it could be improved.
Some welcome changes have been made. The process could and should
be improved still further, for example, by replacing the six-week
consultation with the standard twelve-week period, but radical
change is now unlikely, even though the closure programme is a
matter of considerable public concern. People regularly petition
the House against local proposals. When our original Report was
published we had considered 51 such petitions; since then another
26 have been referred to us. Even after our original inquiry had
reported, we received further letters and memoranda. Between publication
of the Report and receipt of the Government response our chairman
took part in the radio programme You and Yours. Callers
to that programme made it quite clear how much they valued local
post office services.
3. This Report considers the responses we have received.
We also consider the future of the network. Although we reluctantly
accept that some rationalisation of the current network is necessary,
the post office network provides services of general economic
interest across the entire United Kingdom. However, as all parties
recognise, it is not simply a commercial entity. The "urban
reinvention" closure programme was swiftly followed by the
current Network Change Programme: we do not want to see further
shrinkage. It is time for a strategic examination of the relationship
between the post office network and Royal Mail Group. Postcomm
has gone so far as to recommend that Post Office Ltd and Royal
Mail be demerged.[2] At
this stage, it is impossible to assess whether or not that is
a practicable solution. Before considering whether the two entities
should be separated, there needs to be detailed and public consideration
of the commercial arrangements between them, and the interplay
between the post office network and the universal service obligation.
1 Third Report of Session 2007-08, Post Office Closure
Programme, HC 292-I Back
2
See, for example, Postcomm, The Independent Review of the postal
services sector. Second submission by Postcomm, the industry
regulator, May 2008 Back
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