Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the cost of the Post Office’s New Network Location Programme is, and how that programme is funded.

Government has invested over £2 billion in the Post Office since 2010. Funding has been split between subsidy funding to support branches that are not economically viable and investment funding to modernise the post office, including transforming branches and franchising some directly managed branches. The split for the current funding package between April 2018 to March 2021 is £210 million in investment funding and £160 million in subsidy.

Network Development programmes, including the New Network Location Programme, are funded from the current funding provided to Post Office Limited from Government.

While the Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office, it allows the company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent business. Thus, the precise allocation of funding to different programmes is an operational matter for Post Office Limited and subject to commercial confidentiality.