Ministers are exploring plans to hand ownership of the Post Office to thousands of sub-postmasters across the UK, sources have told the BBC.
The proposal is in its early stages and is one of several under consideration.
The Department of Business and Commerce has asked management consultancy BCG to explore a possible ownership model, as first reported by Sky News.
The Commerce Secretary expects to receive a report in the coming months, a government source said.
Deputy Postmasters are responsible for the day-to-day management of more than 11,500 post offices across the UK.
In July, former business secretary Sir Vince Cable told the Post Office inquiry that he had wanted to “address the imbalance” between the Post Office and subpostmasters by creating a “mutual structure “.
He said he raised some of these issues with Paula Vennells, then director of the Post Office, but the change “sadly never came to fruition”.
Instead, the Post Office was separated from the Royal Mail group under the leadership of Sir Vince and remains a public company.
The relationship between the Post Office and subpostmasters has been the subject of widespread attention following the Horizon scandal.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted after Horizon IT's faulty accounting system made it appear that money was missing from branch accounts.
This has been called the most widespread miscarriage of justice in the United Kingdom.
Hundreds of affected sub-postmasters launched legal action against the Post Office in 2019, led by Sir Alan Bates – and some are still waiting to be compensated.
An ITV drama about the affair in January sparked renewed public interest in the scandal.
The Metropolitan Police said they were investigating the Post Office for possible fraud committed at the time.
