Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 31 January 2017.
We have, of course, over the years supported our post offices financially, and they are hugely important in local communities. It is right to say that, whilst personal banking services can be provided by post offices, the reality is that most business customers don’t get that kind of service, and that’s what the Post Office needs to deliver, working with the banks. When businesses cash up at the end of the day, where do they take their money? That’s one of the issues. We look then at having night safes in post offices—that’s the logical development. It helps the footfall of a post office as well. The difficulty with banking now is that footfall has dropped significantly in the branches, but there are people who need those services, and we must find a way of working with the Post Office to make sure that those services are available to those people who need them. We’ve made representations over the years to the Post Office, and indeed to the banks—I’ve done it personally—to make sure that, where banks decide they no longer want to be in a community, the post office is able to take over the service that they offer, and, of course, to look at ways in which credit unions can provide financial services as well, to fill the gaps that the commercial banks are leaving.