Written answers
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Post Office
Geraldine Smith (Morecambe & Lunesdale, Labour)
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much the Post Office has contributed to the Exchequer in external financing contributions to Government revenues (a) since its establishment as a public corporation and (b) in each of the last 30 years; and if he will express each figure in current prices.
Patrick McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour) | Hansard source
holding answer 20 January 2009
: The External Financing Limit (EFL) regime, whereby the Post Office corporation was required to generate funds for the Exchequer, began in 1976-77. A total of £2,48l million was generated up to financial year 1998-99 and the amounts were retained on the company's balance sheet. These funds were not removed from the company and used for Government purposes. Instead the funds were used to support the Post Office Network and more recently the Royal Mail pension fund. The EFL regime no longer applied beyond this period.
The following table shows the value of the EFL outturns for financial years 1976-77 to 1998-99 in historic as well as current prices.
Post Office corporation EFL outturns from 1976-77 to 1998-99
