Thousands of Post Offices may be saved as Post Office Card Account contract awarded

Commenting on the Government announcement that it is cancelling the procurement process and awarding the contract for the Post Office Card Account (POCA) to the Post Office for a further five years, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Jenny Willott said:

"This announcement comes as a huge relief to the millions of Post Office Card Account holders, thousands of Sub Post Masters and the countless communities that may have lost their post office if the decision had been different.

"The Government has wasted time and money and caused immeasurable heartache by dragging this process out for so long. This could all have been avoided if, as the Liberal Democrats have long argued, the Post Office Card Account had never been put out to tender in the first place.

"However, cancelling the procurement exercise is a peculiar means of arriving at this decision and Ministers have some explaining to do."