The UK government is considering a proposal to hand ownership of the Post Office to sub-postmasters across the country, according to sources. The idea forms part of a raft of proposals being examined by the Department for Business and Trade, with the assistance of BCG. It is hoped that a report will be submitted to the business secretary in the near future.
Sub-postmasters are responsible for overseeing the management of more than 11,500 post offices in the country. In July, former business secretary Sir Vince Cable called for a review to address the imbalance between the Post Office and sub-postmasters by creating a mutual structure. While he discussed the matter with Paula Vennells, former Post Office CEO, the proposal did not come to fruition.
The beleaguered relationship between the Post Office and sub-postmasters has been in the public eye following the Horizon scandal. Between 1999 and 2015, over 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly punished after the Horizon IT accounting system made it appear that money was stolen from branch accounts. This has been described as one of the UK’s worst miscarriages of justice. Sir Alan Bates led a group of sub-postmasters in taking legal action against the Post Office in 2019, with some still awaiting compensation.
An ITV drama about the case in January revived public attention on the scandal. The Metropolitan police announced that it was looking into possible fraud charges against the Post Office. The government is hoping that a mutual ownership structure could offer a solution to some of the underlying issues that contributed to the scandal.
The potential ownership restructuring is still in the early planning stages, and it remains to be seen whether it will be adopted. The government will no doubt be taking a close look at the possible outcomes of such a move to determine whether it is the most viable option to address the ongoing issues within the Post Office
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