Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with banks on the closure of bank branches in rural areas.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Treasury regularly engages with the banking sector to discuss a range of policy matters. The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking and cash services, and I would like to assure you that I am monitoring this issue closely.
Though the closure of bank or building society branches are commercial decisions, it is imperative that firms recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who need to use in-person services.
Guidance from the FCA sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. The FCA’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable.
UK customers can access banking services through a number of different channels. This includes in branches, Post Offices or Banking Hubs, as well as via telephone banking and through digital means such as mobile or online banking.
The Post Office allows personal and business customers to carry out everyday banking services at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. The Post Office is required by the Department for Business & Trade to ensure that 95% of the total rural population across the UK is within 3 miles of their nearest Post Office.
Banking Hubs are an initiative which enable customers of participating banks to access cash and banking services in shared facilities. Over 100 Banking Hubs have been announced so far, and the Government hopes to see these Hubs open as soon as possible.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of the total rural population in Wales was within three miles of (a) Local, (b) Local Plus, (c) Main or Crown and (d) mobile outreach Post Office branches in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government protects the Post Office network by setting minimum access criteria to ensure that 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office. These criteria ensure that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.
Post Office network coverage data is not available in the detail requested. However, according to the most recent Post Office Annual Network Report, there were 566 rural branches in Wales as of March 2023.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a Post Office access target for outreach mobile services in rural communities.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Post Office operates as a commercial business and the company has the freedom to deliver the branch network within the parameters we set. The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that services remain within local reach of all citizens, including rural communities.
Providing outreach services is a measure that Post Office takes to ensure communities have the access they require to Post Office products and services, particularly in local areas where permanent solutions are not always possible due to lack of premises or retailers. In these communities, outreach branches ensure customers are not left behind and can continue to access the Post Office services on which they rely.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Post Office Horizon software system that was updated in 2017 has any issues with discrepancies of cash shortfalls in individual Post Offices; and if so, in how many Post Offices such problems have occurred.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
There have been several versions of Horizon since its introduction in 1999 and the current version of the system, introduced from 2017, was found in the Group Litigation to be robust, relative to comparable systems. Post Office continue to make improvements to the system and will be moving away from Horizon to a new IT system. The Government is providing funding to support this programme.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with the authorities in Northern Ireland on rural banking services.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Treasury engages with a range of different stakeholders to discuss policy matters. We look forward to working with the restored Executive to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.
It is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who need to use in-person services.
UK customers can access banking services through a number of different channels. This includes in branches, Post Offices or Banking Hubs, as well as via telephone banking and through digital means such as mobile or online banking.
The Post Office allows personal and business customers to carry out everyday banking services at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. The Post Office is required by the Department for Business & Trade to ensure that 95% of the total rural population across the UK is within 3 miles of their nearest Post Office.
Moreover, Banking Hubs are an initiative which enable customers of participating banks to access cash and banking services in shared facilities. Over 100 Banking Hubs have been announced so far, and the Government hopes to see these Hubs open as soon as possible across all four nations of the United Kingdom. To date, 5 Hubs have been announced in Northern Ireland, with Kilkeel already open.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps were taken when the shortfalls arising from flaws in the Horizon software system were reported at Post Offices controlled by the Crown.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Horizon Inquiry, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams, aims to review all the evidence to establish a clear account of the implementation and failings of Horizon. A number of the issues which the Inquiry is considering relate explicitly to the actions of Post Office.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many postmasters or staff at Crown-controlled Post Offices have been prosecuted for shortfalls arising from flaws in the Horizon software system and how much money was recovered from them.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government does not hold information on the number of prosecutions broken down by type of Post Office. Postmasters who repaid shortfalls, which arose as a result of the Horizon software, to the Post Office, can claim compensation for these amounts, as well as any other financial and personal damage which they have suffered as a consequence of the IT system.
The full 2,417 postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon Shortfall Scheme have now all had offers of compensation. Offers have totalled over £107m and over £93 million has been paid out in this scheme, with Post Office now dealing with late applications and with those cases where the initial offer was not accepted.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons are fully staffed.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Fully staffed’ has been interpreted as having Staff in Post full time equivalent (FTE) equal to or in excess of Target Staffing FTE for the establishment. Staff in Post and Target Staffing have been summed across all staffing grades, meaning that surpluses and deficits may exist within individual grades. Band 3 to 5 prison officers are considered the key operational grades and so we have additionally presented a comparison based on these grades alone.
In reality, many establishments will routinely sit marginally below their Target Staffing level due to normal attrition and time to hire and so we would not expect establishments to run consistently at 100% staffing. To present a more realistic picture, we are presenting data which shows staffing compared to 97.5% of Target Staffing levels which we would assess as well within tolerance.
Where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level they are routinely supplemented, for instance by the use of Payment Plus, a form of overtime, or agency staff for non-operational grades to ensure the minimum staffing level required by the Regime Management Plan is met and that a safe and decent regime can be delivered. This is not accounted for in this analysis. Similarly, the use of Detached Duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the data. Factoring in these forms of temporary staffing would further increase the number of prisons considered at full staffing or 97.5% of Target Staffing. The use of tactical resourcing and, where necessary, population management at sites with higher levels of vacancies ensures that all prisons are able to operate regimes considered by HMPPS Operations to be safe and decent.
As of September 2023, 70 out of 106 establishments in England and Wales had at least 97.5% of their target staffing level for band 3 to 5 prison officers. The equivalent figure when summing across all grades and roles is 56 out of 106 – however this includes business administrators, operational support grades, instructors, governor grades and other roles held in a prison.
As of 30 September 2023, there had been an increase of 1,441 FTE (6.7%) band 3-5 prison officers compared to 30 September 2022 and resignation rates had fallen for this group to 8.6%. Since 2019, the starting salary increased for an entry level prison officer from £23,529 to £32,851 (national rate, 39-hour week with unsocial hours allowance). Further improvements will be evidenced in the next set of published data.
Footnotes and caveats
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether DVLA services will be available at post offices after 31 March 2024.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency awarded Post Office Ltd a contract to provide some services. The contract starts on 1 April 2024 and is for one year, with an option to extend for a further two one year periods.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many sub-postmasters have been referred for prosecution for issues relating to the Horizon software.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
983 Post Office-related convictions have been identified during the relevant period.