Tolhurst said this would include the Post Office leadership and “representatives of local postmasters” in order to “ensure postmasters receive a fair wage”.

The minister was forced to act by a Daily Mail campaign following evidence submitted to a business select committee enquiry, which slammed the Post Office for its “pittance” pay for subpostmasters.

Al Cameron, interim chief executive of the Post Office, said: “We are committed to ensuring our postmasters receive a fair remuneration for the vital services they provide to customers.

“We announced significant increases for providing cash deposit services, which are in addition to other recent increases in banking services remuneration.

“We are also conducting a special review into wider postmaster remuneration. This is so we can support our retailers to ensure their businesses are as efficient and profitable as possible.”

Rival PayPoint also used the Business Select Committee enquiry to suggest it could replace elements of the Post Office. 

Its submission read: “There are many commercial organisations providing counter and self-service solutions successfully and profitably, who would welcome the opportunity to play a greater role, but are prevented from doing so by the Post Office’s monopoly of major government contracts and the Royal Mail.”