Department for Business and Trade, Subsidy to Post Office Limited (Remediation Unit and Horizon IT Inquiry)

This Department for Business and Trade, subsidy to Post Office Limited, worth up to £57.9 million, would enable POL to continue to meet the costs of acting as a core participant in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry and maintaining its Remediation Unit (delivering compensatory and other Horizon-related activities) for the 2025/26 Financial Year.

Our key takeaways from the Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) report are:

• Assessments should clearly explain and evidence the subsidy objectives and demonstrate why the chosen subsidy is the most appropriate option in response to the objectives.
• Assessments of subsidies supporting the provision of Services of Public Economic Interests (SPEIs), should explain the alignment between the benefits of maintaining the SPEI and the specific subsidy policy objectives.
• Assessments should ensure that they fully explain the applicable counterfactual scenarios. Within these explanations, detail should be provided on whether the subsidy will be used to fund business-as-usual cost or projects / activities that would not have required a subsidy to be undertaken, as these costs are generally not permitted to be awarded via a subsidy under the Act.
• Assessments should provide clear information about any competition distortions that may arise as a result of the subsidy and should consider the extent of the potential impacts in detail.
• When demonstrating that restructuring subsidies meet the section 20 conditions, assessments should provide a clear plan to return to long-term viability. If the assessment concerns a second restructuring subsidy within a five-year period, it must be demonstrated that the circumstances leading to this further restructuring subsidy were unforeseen.

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