Post Offices

As an amendment to motion S2M-05349 in the name of Mr John Swinney (Post Offices), leave out from “expresses” to end and insert “believes that it is necessary to look carefully at the UK Government’s proposals for the future of the post office network in full and the consultation paper itself to ensure that the special needs of Scotland’s remoter communities are properly taken into account; welcomes the Scottish Executive’s proposal to apply four criteria to this assessment, namely whether there will be an acceptable level of future services, especially in remote rural and disadvantaged communities, whether there is a recognition that post offices do not occupy a purely commercial role in our communities, but have an important social role to play, whether there is proper consultation with affected local communities and whether there will be a continuation of Post Office efforts to promote innovative means of service delivery; believes that it is important that the vital social and economic role of post offices has been acknowledged; is pleased to see the commitment of £1.7 billion to support the network and to pay for restructuring and that the annual social network payment will remain in place meantime, and is encouraged by the push for outreach locations for remote communities.”