Post Office Ltd wins passport contract,

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Post Office Ltd wins passport contract, as 1,000th branch is converted

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Britain’s Post Office Ltd has now completed 1,000 branch conversions under its £1.34bn Network Transformation Programme.

The milestone was marked on Friday as UK postal affairs minister Jo Swinson visited a post office at Uddingston, near Glasgow.

It came as Post Office Ltd also extended its work providing passport application services, with a seven-year contract renewal.

Modernisation

Post Office Ltd set itself the target to modernise 6,000 branches by 2015, using about a third of the £1.34bn in government funding announced in late 2010, with the process “gathering pace” this year.

The 500th branch conversion milestone came back in April.

The modernisation effort is phasing in two new formats for post offices – “Main” branches that include a full range of services, and “Local” branches, which offer the core post office services.

Paula Vennells, the Post Office chief executive, claimed that longer opening hours provided in the new formats has already resulted in an extra 20,000 opening hours across the network.

She said of the conversion programme: “Our customers have welcomed the improved environments and longer service hours, with satisfaction scores averaging around 95%, according to independent research.”

Visiting the Uddingston branch, the minister said reaching 1,000 conversions was a “significant” milestone.

The Uddingston branch wasn’t actually the 1,000th to be converted – that was the sub post office in the rural village of Penpont, in Dumfries & Galloway, which opened on 2nd September.

“We know how important Post Offices are, which is why we are investing £1.34billion to modernise Post Offices so they can open longer, offer more services, and have a secure future,” said Swinson.

Passport contract

Post Office Ltd said it secured the seven-year contract extension to provide Passport Check & Send services through a framework agreement for various government agencies won last November.

The service offers customers help in ensuring their passport application has been correctly filled out, then sends applications in to the Passport Office.

The minister said: “The fact that the Post Office has secured the future of the Passport Check & Send service is a great example of Post Office acting as a front office for Government services.

“It also opens up the opportunity to bring in digital services in the future which could speed up passport applications. This is all part of delivering a stronger Post Office which can serve customers in the modern age,” she added.

The government framework agreement – called the Front Office Counter Services Framework – already supports the Post Office providing driving license services for the DVLA, and also allows Post Office to bid to provide other front office services from Government.