Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 20 October 2021 to Question 57139, on Post Offices, how many of the applications received after the Post Office's Historical Shortfall Scheme closed on 27 November 2020 have been assessed.
Answered by Paul Scully
While Post Office Limited is publicly owned, it operates as an independent business. Decisions on making awards under the Historical Shortfall Scheme are for the Post Office to make.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 20 October 2021 to Question 57139, on Post Offices, how many of the applications received after the Post Office's Historical Shortfall Scheme closed on 27 November 2020 have been refused payment from that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
While Post Office Limited is publicly owned, it operates as an independent business. Decisions on making awards under the Historical Shortfall Scheme are for the Post Office to make.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 20 October 2021 to Question 57139, on Post Offices, how many of the applications received after the Post Office's Historical Shortfall Scheme closed on 27 November 2020 have had an award made from that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
While Post Office Limited is publicly owned, it operates as an independent business. Decisions on making awards under the Historical Shortfall Scheme are for the Post Office to make.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Green Deal appeal cases are still due to be processed as at 18 October 2021.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As of 18 October 2021, there are 382 live Green Deal complaint cases referred to my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for review.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many of the applications received after the Post Office's Historical Shortfall Scheme closed on 27 November 2020 have (a) been assessed, (b) had an award made from that scheme and (c) been excluded from that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
There are a small number of individuals (107) who did not apply to the HSS before 27 November 2020 and Post Office is seeking fair and consistent solutions for these cases. Post Office is keeping those affected updated.
The Historical Shortfall Scheme which opened in May 2020 was advertised in national, regional and local media and individual letters were sent to all former postmasters that Post Office was able to obtain records for, plus all current postmasters. The HSS mailing was sent to 19,972 former and 7,155 current postmasters.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many former postmasters applied to the Historical Shortfall Scheme after it closed on 27 November 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
One hundred and seven current and former postmasters applied to the Historical Shortfall Scheme after it closed on 27 November 2020.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications have been received for the Post Office’s Historical Shortfall Scheme after that scheme closed on 14 August 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
By 14th August 2020, 1481 applications had been received into the Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS), which increased to 1962 by 21st August 2020 once applications received by the initial cut-off date has been processed. The application period was extended to 27 November 2020 to allow for late notifications and expanded eligibility criteria. The number of applications being considered by the HSS as of 3rd September 2021 is 2516.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many current and former postmasters were (a) contacted and (b) unable to be traced by the Post Office in response to the opening of the Historical Shortfall Scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
There were 27127 letters sent to current and former postmasters notifying them of the scheme.
Additionally, on the 4 May 2020 Post Office Ltd commenced a sustained paid for media campaign, which was used to highlight the scheme’s existence to postmasters in addition to the mailing campaign. This media campaign was covered in over 400 National, Regional and Local newspapers.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his planned timeframe is for processing the remaining cases for review under the Green Deal Framework Regulations.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aiming to respond to all remaining Green Deal appeals as soon as possible taking account of the stages in place for the handling of appeals.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Green Deal appeal cases are due to be processed.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As of 7 June, the Department has a total of 334 cases for review by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State under the Green Deal Framework Regulations.