CWU says Post Office DVLA contract “essential”

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CWU says Post Office DVLA contract “essential” to future of network

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The Communication Workers Union welcomes confirmation that the Post Office has today (Tuesday) been awarded the DVLA contract. The CWU, which represents Postmasters and people working in Crown Offices, has been calling for more government work to make good on the promise of using the Post Office as the 'front office for government services'.

The DVLA contract will provide the network with £450 million over the next seven years, rising to £650m over ten years. CWU hopes more similar contracts will now follow to help maintain the network size at 11,500 branches.



Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: "Confirmation that the Post Office has won this important DVLA contract is great news for the network, for consumers and for postmasters and Post Office staff. It's testimony to the hard work that our members do, day in day out, providing customers with a valuable public service.

"We are pleased that the DVLA and the government has seen sense and not provided this work to PayPoint, as they did recently with benefit work (green giros). If the government's policy to create a 'front office for government' through the Post Office is be realised, then more government work like this must be transacted via the Post Office. It's good value as it will help offset the subsidy which comes from elsewhere in government.

"We hope this DVLA contract will be the first of many. This type of work and investment is absolutely necessary to maintain the current size of the network at 11,500."

The contract is a framework contract, which allows the Post Office to gain other work from the Government, outside of DVLA, without having to go through the full procurement exercise.

The contract will include normal licenses and tax discs to be offered at nearly 5,000 outlets, as well as some services currently provided by the DVLA, such as licensing of heavy good vehicles.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the government and is no longer part of Royal Mail Group.