Postal Services Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:44 am on 9 November 2010.

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Paula Vennells: That is because the access criteria that apply to the Post Office are separate from the Bill. The Post Office is run separately, and we are accountable to Government separately for access criteria which, in the announcement that Ministers made, do not change. So 99% of the population in urban areas still need to be within a mile of a post office. In rural areas, that is 95%, and postcodes in certain areas are protected as well. That remains completely unchanged. Any threat to the post office network has been taken away by the funding in the Government policy statement on the Post Office, which is separate from the Bill. The Bill helps the Post Office, because of the potential separation, and enters us into a different area. We can start to look for more business, which the Government have talked about, in terms of front office for Government, and how we restructure our network. The network access criteria remain unchanged.