Government ministers are mulling over whether to transfer ownership of the Post Office to the UK’s army of sub-postmasters, according to a BBC report.
The proposal is in its preliminary stages and is among several options being considered.
Management consultancy BCG has been hired to look into the idea and is expected to report to the Business Secretary in the months ahead.
Sub-postmasters run more than 11,500 Post Offices across the country.
Vince Cable, Business Secretary from 2010 to 2015, testified at the Post Office inquiry in July that he had wanted to address the imbalance between the Post Office and sub-postmasters by establishing a “mutual structure”.
He said he had discussed this with the disgraced Paula Vennells, who was Post Office boss at the time, but the proposed changes “unfortunately never came to fruition”.
Under Cable’s tenure, the Post Office was separated from the Royal Mail group and is still owned by the Government.
The relationship between the Post Office and sub-postmasters has been under the microscope in the wake of the Horizon scandal.
The Metropolitan Police is to investigate potential fraud by the Post Office during the scandal, which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters wrongfully prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 over alleged shortfalls in their branch accounts.
