Put up Workplace might hand possession to workers amid overview after Horizon scandal

[ad_1] Ministers are to contemplate handing over possession of the Put up Workplace to its operators after the Horizon IT scandal.

The Division for Enterprise and Commerce (DBT) has revealed a inexperienced paper, beginning the primary huge overview of the scandal-plagued organisation in 15 years.

The overview, which can run till 6 October, follows the publication final week of the primary a part of the two-year public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.

Ministers stated that a part of the overview will embody trying on the possession mannequin of the Put up Workplace, which is in the end managed by the federal government, together with the potential for mutualisation.

Ministers have beforehand met representatives of submit workplace operators to debate the potential for handing possession to the community department managers who run its 11,500 shops.

“This inexperienced paper marks the beginning of an trustworthy dialog about what individuals need and want from their Put up Workplace within the years forward,” stated Gareth Thomas, the submit workplace minister.

“Put up Workplaces proceed to be a central a part of our excessive streets and communities throughout the nation. Nonetheless, after 15 years and not using a correct overview, and within the aftermath of the Horizon scandal, it’s clear we want a recent imaginative and prescient for the long run.”

About 1,000 submit workplace operators have been prosecuted by the Put up Workplace between 1999 and 2015 due to defective Horizon accounting software program that made it look as if they'd been committing fraud.

The scandal, extensively thought of to be probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK historical past, was the topic of the critically acclaimed ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Put up Workplace, which aired final 12 months and thrust the issue into the nationwide highlight.

Bates has beforehand criticised the concept of mutualisation. “At present, the federal government subsidises it and can proceed to must help it. They'll’t simply give it to the subpostmasters and say: ‘Right here you go, mate’,” he stated final 12 months.

In November, the Put up Workplace introduced it was to shut as much as 115 branches placing 2,000 jobs in danger.

Nigel Railton, the Put up Workplace chair, is reducing a whole bunch of workers jobs with a view to add £250m yearly to operators’ remuneration.

On Monday, the federal government additionally introduced that it's to offer an extra £118m subsidy to assist the Put up Workplace push via its restructure and transformation plans.

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The Communications Employees Union (CWU) criticised the award of the subsidy and stated the Put up Workplace and Royal Mail, which have been cut up greater than a decade in the past, wanted to be reunified.

“Successive governments have failed the Put up Workplace, its staff and clients,” stated a spokesperson for the CWU. “And selecting to make use of authorities subsidies for deliberate redundancies, closures and so-called transformation plans which are nothing greater than managed decline. The one approach to construct a profitable future is to deliver Royal Mail and the Put up Workplace again collectively via a brand new three way partnership possession mannequin.”

The proprietor of Royal Mail was purchased by the Czech tycoon Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group in a £3.6bn deal that took the inventory market-listed enterprise non-public earlier this 12 months.

The federal government stated its inexperienced paper would supply the chance to work “hand in hand” with submit workplace operators and the general public to make sure the corporate is “placed on a path to a powerful and sustainable future”.

“We now have a once-in-a-decade alternative to have a nationwide dialog about the way forward for our submit places of work and their function in supporting communities throughout the UK,” stated Neil Brocklehurst, the chief government of the Put up Workplace.

Based on the newest official figures, simply over £1bn has been paid out in compensation to greater than 7,300 claimants throughout the 4 redress schemes as much as 2 June.