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ewwli[Os.
To: ci: Mr McCartney
SECRETARY OF STATE Th, s Sir Michael Scholar
CGBPS
From: i PORT
DAVID SIBBICK FRM
DIREGIOR POSTS ifs Hopkins cil
ia I Mr Osborne Legal C
151 Buckingham Palace Road ifr Seabrook COM
i Mr Whitehead CGBPS 1
: i Ms Anderson CGBPS1
en I Mr Corry SpAdv
UATE Ms Moore SpAdv
MEETING WITH COLIN BAKER, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SUBPOSTMASTERS TUESDAY 8 JUNE
1999 AT 3.00PM
Issue
il5 You are meeting with Colin Baker, General Secretary of the National
Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) and John Peberdy ( Chairman, NFSP Executive
Council) at 3.00 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday 8 June. Isabel Anderson and I will attend
the meeting.
Recommendation
2 A steering brief for the meeting is attached at Annex A.
Background
3: We will be able to brief you immediately prior to the meeting on the mood of
the NFSP at the Horizon Working Group meeting chaired by Mr McCartney which is
taking place tomorrow morning. A key theme to the meeting is certain to be the
NFSP’s disappointment at the loss of the benefit payment card element of the project
the meeting will require careful handling.
4. Whilst retention of the automation element of the project will be seen as helpful,
the NFSP will express strong concerns about the impact of the significant drop in
income expected by subpostmasters from 2003 when paper based benefit payments are
progressively replaced by ACT transactions - given that the income the Post Office
can expect to earn from carrying out banking transactions on an agency basis for the
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high street banks is likely to be only a fraction of that currently received from the
Benefits Agency.
5. The NFSP are likely to repeat their concerns that fears about the future viability
of post offices will lead to further loss of confidence amongst subpostmasters and post
office closures, especially in rural areas. They will have been told by Mr McCartney
that Ministers look to the members of the Horizon Working Group to work together to
maximise the very great commercial potential of the Horizon platform, but that the
Government will also be discussing the longer term viability of the network with the
Post Office in the context of the Strategic Plan.
6. You will wish to reassure the NFSP of your personal interest in the succesful
completion of the Horizon project and your commitment to ensuring the
subpostmasters’ interests are taken into account in any deliberations by the
Governmnet of the future of the network.
DAVID SIBBICK
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