Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the Post Office on ensuring the size and accessibility of the branch network.

In our 2017 Manifesto we committed to safeguarding a Post Office network of at least 11,500 branches and to protect existing rural services. The Government sets the parameters in which the Post Office operates and then allows the Post Office to operate as an independent commercial organisation.

BEIS officials are in regular discussions with the Post Office and continue to monitor the network size.