Katy Clark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on increasing the range of services provided by the Post Office network.

Jenny Willott

Post Office Ltd, with its network of over 11,500 branches, is well placed to become a provider of front office services for Government, helping citizens interact with Government either face-to-face or online.

While public services must be competitively tendered, Post Office Ltd has shown that it can very effectively bid for and win new work. It has won every Government contract it has bid for the past three years in highly competitive tendering processes.

In particular, in 2012 it successfully bid for the competitively-tendered DVLA framework contract for Front Office Counter Services (FOCS). This contract runs to 2020 and is available to other Government departments. For example HM Passport Office recently moved its services with Post Office Ltd onto FOCS and this Department and the Cabinet Office are in close contact about a range of other opportunities.

Furthermore, Post Office Ltd was recently one of the successful bidders for the Cabinet Office’s online identity assurance contract, ensuring that Post Office Ltd can play a role in the delivery of modern, online Government services.

Whilst I continue to highlight to my colleagues the opportunities available to Government from using the Post Office network and contracts such as these, individual contracts are a matter for the services in question and their respective public bodies and departments. I have not had recent discussions specifically with the Welsh Government.