Memorandum submitted by the Department
for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Thank you for your letter of 4 March on
the provision of services through the Post Office Network. I apologise
for the delay in replying.
The Post Office Network is important for the
work of Defra not least because many branches are situated in
rural areas and play an important social and economic role in
those communities. Additionally any new opportunities for Government
services across the Post Office network need to take full account
of the needs of rural as well as urban residents—This means
that rural residents, where appropriate, should be able to take
equitable advantage of any benefits that expansion of delivery
of Government services through the Post Office network offers.
Most of Defra's customer interaction is through
our NDPBs and Executive Agencies, and there are few direct opportunities
to deliver business through Post Office. At the moment the main
services we are delivering through the Post Office network are
fishing and game licenses. However, we are currently exploring
the opportunities and barriers to the provision of delivering
additional services through the network. Since we are still at
an early stage in the development of this work we do not have
sufficient data to currently make an informed statement. However,
I am happy to report back to the committee when we have had an
opportunity to explore these possibilities further.
16 April 2009
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