Post Office Ltd

Interior of a post office, showing available merchandise

The Post Office provides information on services and accepts postal items and payment on behalf of the two collection and delivery divisions of Royal Mail Group, Royal Mail and Parcelforce. These include a variety of ordinary and guaranteed services both for delivery within the United Kingdom and to international destinations. Postage stamps (including commemorative stamps and other philatelic items) are sold, while applications for redirection of mail are accepted on behalf of Royal Mail.

Post Office Local Collect is a scheme whereby undelivered mail can be redirected at customer request to a post office for convenient collection. Poste restante mail can also be held for collection by people travelling.

The Post Office provides credit cards, current accounts, insurance products, mortgages and personal loans through the Post Office Money umbrella brand which was launched in 2015. Most Post Office Money branded products are provided by Bank of Ireland (UK) plc with Post Office Ltd acting as an appointed representative and credit broker. However with the sale of the Bank of Ireland's UK assets to Jaja Finance in 2019,[15] Post Office branded Credit Cards are now issued by Capital One UK [16]

A mobile post office in Borrowby, North Yorkshire.

Personal banking services are offered on behalf of a number of "partner banks" that the Post Office has agreements with. Although different services are available on behalf of different institutions, these may include cash withdrawals, paying in cash and cheques, and balance enquiries. Some post offices also have cash machines, mainly provided by Bank of Ireland.

Business banking services are also offered for customers of twenty different UK banks.[17] Services include balance enquiries, cash withdrawals, depositing cash and cheques, and giving change.

Post Office in Corsham, Wiltshire

A number of bill payments can be accepted on behalf of a variety of organisations including utilities, local authorities and others. These are in the form of automated payments (barcoded bills, swipe cards, key charging). The Santander Transcash system, which had been a Girobank service, enabled manual bill payment transactions, but this service was discontinued by Santander in December 2017.[18]

The Post Office also operates as an internet service provider; providing consumer broadband and phone services and is part of the wider Post Office Limited Group. By February 2019, it had just over half a million customers across the UK. Post Office provides asymmetric digital subscriber line broadband and Fibre broadband internet products (FTTC) to residential customers.

Post Office offers two variants of router: A standard Wi-Fi router (Zyxel AMG1302-T11C) router with its ADSL broadband packages and the Zyxel VMG3925-B10B with its Fibre broadband packages. Post Office Broadband and Phone services are currently supplied using the TalkTalk network and it operates UK based call centres, with teams based in Preston, Selkirk and Chiswick.

Post Office also runs its own flat rate 118 Directory Enquiries service (118 855). Mobile phone top ups are also available in Post Office branches on behalf of all the major UK mobile networks.

In June 2015 the Post Office launched its own mobile virtual network operator service, Post Office Mobile.[19] However, in August 2016 it decided "to conclude the trial as the results did not give us sufficient confidence that mobile will contribute to our goal of commercial sustainability".[20]

A passport check-and-send service is available for passport applications, where the post office staff check that a passport application is filled in correctly and has an acceptable photograph accompanying it. The service is not affiliated with HM Passport Office. Check-and-send service is not guaranteed service.[21]

The Post Office used to offer a check-and-send service with DVLA for the photocard driving licence. Some branches now offer a photocard driving licence renewal service.[22]

Fishing licences are issued on behalf of the Environment Agency from branches in England and Wales.

Selected branches issue international driving permits. In 2019, availability of this service was expanded from 89 to approximately 2,500 branches due to increased demand associated with the possibility of a "no deal" Brexit.[23]

Post Office savings stamps were first introduced by Henry Fawcett in the 1880s but were phased out in the 1960s. These were re-introduced in August 2004 because of consumer demand. In 2010 saving stamps were withdrawn and replaced by the Budget Card.

• National Lottery games and scratchcards
• Sale and encashment of postal orders
• Foreign currency exchange and Travel Money Card
• Sales of gift vouchers redeemable at certain high street merchants
• PostPak
• Fast drop
• Drop and Go
• National Express coach tickets

In April 2015, the BBC described a confidential report that alleged that the Post Office had made 'failings'[25] with regard to accounting issues with its Horizon IT system that were identified by sub-postmasters as early as 2000.[26][27] The article claimed that an independent investigation by forensic accountants Second Sight had found that the Post Office had failed to identify the root cause of accounting shortfalls in many cases before launching court proceedings against sub-postmasters.[28] The shortfalls could have been caused by criminals using malicious software, by IT systems or by human error, the report said. An earlier article[29] by the BBC had claimed that a confidential report contained allegations that the Post Office had refused to hand over documents that the accountants felt they needed to investigate properly, that training was not good enough, that equipment was outdated, and that power cuts and communication problems had made things worse. The Post Office has claimed that their system was not at fault.

In 2019, the Post Office was lambasted by the High Court for its 'institutional obstinacy or refusal to consider' that its Horizon computer system might be flawed. The judge, Mr Justice Fraser, characterised this stance as "the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat."[30] In spite of the court action against its sub-postmasters, which was described by a judge as "aggressive and, literally, dismissive", the Post Office's chief executive Paula Vennells, who had in the meantime left the Post Office and taken up posts in the NHS and the Cabinet Office, was controversially awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours for "services to the Post Office and to charity".[31] On 19 March 2020 she was harshly criticised in the House of Commons, particularly by Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, who said:[32]

Obviously, as a board member she knew what was going on, including the strategy in the court case and the bugs in the system. What happened? She got a CBE in the new year’s honours list for services to the Post Office. That is just rubbing salt into the wounds of these innocent people. There is a case for her having that honour removed, and I would like to know how she got it in the first place when the court case is ongoing. Added to that, she is now chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Again, I would like to know why and what due diligence was done on her as an individual...