THE SUBPOSTMASTER - JUNE ISSUE

News roundup
Stephen Harper
obituary
Stephen Harper
NFSP Honorary Life Member
Stephen Harper sadly passed away
on 9 April, aged 71, in New Zealand.
Stephen took over Dungiven Post
Office when his father retired in
September 1991. He joined the NFSP
not long afterwards and started
attending local meetings.
After four or five years, he joined
the Northern Ireland Committee.
He was Branch President for a year
and took over as National Executive
Officer following Norman
Ferguson’s retirement in October
2006, and continued in the role
until Conference 2013.
He was a trustee to the Board of
Benevolence, a member of the
Mailwork Committee and Internal
Development Committee and lay
member on the General Purposes
Committee.
Stephen was elected as National
President in 2010/11 and in 2015 was
made Honorary Life Member.
Our thoughts are with his wife,
Erin, and their family at this sad
time.
NBIT TRIALS
CONTINUING
NBIT trials are continuing at pilot
branches and the latest update is
anticipated to go live in the summer.
Trials will continue at more offices
until mid-2027, with the mass rollout
happening after that point.
A mobile van has delivered 50
demos to working postmasters across
Wales and the South West. These
have been 45-minute one-to-one
hands-on experiences and have
received a feedback score of 4.71/5.
Concerns about user experience
have been raised and PO state
transactions should be quicker than
present. NBIT will go through different
stages of testing and the aim is to
have a more agile system than
Horizon.
The NFSP submitted a response
to the consultation on April 2025
National Minimum Wage (NMW)
rates.
The submission pointed out that
consideration had to be given to
those postmasters, as selfemployed
individuals, do not earn
the equivalent of NMW, and the
impact this could have on their
staff levels, opening hours and
future security.
CONCERN OVER COUNTERFEIT STAMPS
The NFSP raised concerns with Post
Office Ltd (PO) in April over the
potential reputational damage to
postmasters regarding counterfeit
stamps.
Articles published throughout April
and May reported that counterfeit
stamps were flooding the UK.
Members of the public complained
about receiving £5 penalties to collect
post after Royal Mail (RM) deemed the
stamps on them to be counterfeit.
PO has held several meetings with
RM to find out how stamps are
identified as fake, and RM now has
stringent processes in place before
customers are surcharged.
Customers are reminded to only buy
stamps from RM’s website or from
their local post office.
If any customer reports to you that
they have been charged for a
‘counterfeit’ stamp, let the NFSP know
by emailing admin@nfsp.org.uk
Post Office Bill approved
The Post Office Bill was approved
by Parliament last month, in a quick
move to ensure the Bill passed before
prorogation ahead of July’s General
Election.
The Bill introduces a law which
quashes convictions from the Horizon
scandal, and applies to convictions
made in England, Wales and Northern
Ireland. The Scottish Parliament used
its emergency procedure to also
quash convictions made in Scotland.
The NFSP welcomes these
announcements which help right the
wrongs made during Britain’s biggest
miscarriage of justice.
Tracked delay
The go-live dates for Tracked 24
and Tracked 48 services remain
delayed but trials are still
continuing in some branches.
The NFSP is concerned about the
length of time it is taking to get
these services to go live.
6 The SubPostmaster June 2024