Department for Business and Trade, Post Office (Future Technology Portfolio 2025 – 2026)

The Department for Business and Trade, Post Office (Future Technology Portfolio 2025 – 2026) is a proposed grant of £136 million to be used by Post Office Limited to ensure that their current IT system, used by postmasters and trading partners, remains functional and in developing a longer-term transition away from the current system.

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

• Assessments should provide through reasoning to demonstrate how the Subsidy has been limited to the minimum necessary to achieve the policy objective.
• Where relevant, considerations should be made around the impact that IT upgrades will have on the ability to compete, compared to the counterfactual, in both the short and long-term.
• Assessments should describe any additional economic spillovers expected due to the services and if necessary, explain why these are not reflected in market outcomes.
• In assessing the counterfactual, detail should be provided on the range of potential scenarios examined and the difficulties faced in making this choice.
• Assessments should provide supporting evidence, such as budget information, to help explain the additionality and why reallocation of funds can not occur to fund the subsidy.

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