text_body: --- DIVISION TITLE ---
  
  Urban Post Office Reinvention Programme - Â£210 million authorization
  
  --- MOTION EFFECT ---
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The majority of MPs voted to authorize payment of Â£180 million to fund compensation payments to subpostmasters whose offices were being closed under a modernization process, and a further Â£30 million to make improvements to offices that remained.[1]
  
  This was one stage of the plans outlined by a government report[2] that had been fully accepted.[3]
  
  Funding was provided as "selective financial assistance" under a law that required Parliamentary approval for sums in excess of Â£10 million,[4] which explains why the motion that was passed read precisely:
  
  :This House authorises the Secretary of State to pay, by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, in respect of the urban post office reinvention programme, a sum exceeding Â£10 million to Post Office Ltd.[5]
  
  Nevertheless, it is unusual for appropriations to be authorized by specifying a lower bound only.
  
  * [1] [http://www.berr.gov.uk/sectors/postalservices/UK%20Policy/page28878.html The Post Office network in urban areas], Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
  * [2] [http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/work_areas/post_office_network.aspx Counter Revolution - Modernising the Post Office Network], Performance and Innovation Unit, June 2000
  * [3] [http://www.berr.gov.uk/sectors/postalservices/UK%20Policy/page28883.html The Post Office network - how Government policy has developed since 1997], Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
  * [4] [http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=Industrial+Development+Act&Year=1982&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=2108717&ActiveTextDocId=2108730&filesize=13831 Industrial Development Act 1982], Section 8.
  * [5] [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2002-10-15.228.0 The Minister for E-Commerce and Competitiveness (Mr. Stephen Timms)], House of Commons, 15 October 2002.
  
  
  
  
  
  --- COMMENTS AND NOTES ---
  
  (put thoughts and notes for other researchers here)
  