BEIS0001069 - Letter from RT Hon Kemi Badenoch MP to Rt Hon Laura Trott MBE MP Re: Appointment of Nigel Railton as interim Chair of Post Office

Evidence on official site

BEIS0001069
BEISO001069

age The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP
4 Secretary of State for Business & Trade
te President of the Board of Trade
Minister for Women & Equalities
Department for Department for Business and Trade
: Old Admiralty Building
Business & Trade Admiralty Place
Whitehall
London
SW1A 20

Rt Hon Laura Trott MBE MP.

E H GRO
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Ww:
1 Horse Guards Road
London

SW1A 2HQ

22 April 2024

Dear Laura,

I am seeking to appoint Nigel Railton as the interim Chair of Post Office for a term of 12
months. The priorities I have set for him include stabilising the organisation, intensifying
work to address Post Office’s historic failures and enabling the future success of the Post
Office through effective financial management and performance and delivery of critical IT
projects, and cost/headcount reductions at the centre to result in lower overall costs.

Nigel has strong executive experience and a good track record of crisis management, all
of which will be important in taking forward these priorities. Nigel will be taking up the Chair
role at a challenging time and I am keen that we do everything possible to support him in
delivering these objectives.

I expect that he will want to bring essential change to the Post Office to deliver on his
mandate. Government must support him on this. I am therefore keen that we agree to look
constructively at any requests he makes of Government with the aim of strengthening the
Post Office, and in principle agree that this may include the provision of funding if needed.

I am asking you to agree in advance a number of areas where we believe Nigel may ap-
proach us for support to ensure that we are collectively ready to make decisions at pace:

i.Funding to be made available for an incoming Chair to enable him to restructure
some key executive positions.

ii.Exemption from approval provisions on employee settlement agreements if re-
lating to such a restructure and to support the proposed exit of the Chief Finance
Officer.

iii.Potential for additional invest-to-save funding to be applied for within the current
Spending Review period.

iv.Funding flexibility, e.g. for Post Office Limited to be allowed to take out commer-
cial loans (or receive loans from HMG).
BEIS0001069
BEISO001069

I realise that these touch on questions that are challenging and sensitive. I will ask my to
work with yours to implement this, and expect that they will stay involved in the process,
but I hope we can work positively together to assess what actions can be taken in order to
move the Post Office forward over the next year.

Yours sincerely,

THE RT HON KEMI BADENOCH MP
Secretary of State for Business & Trade and President of the Board of Trade and
Minister for Women & Equalities