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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) Post Office and (b) Crown Post Office closures on the local economy in England and Wales.

The Government recognises the critical role that post offices play in communities and for small businesses across the UK. This is why the Government committed to safeguard the post office network and protect existing rural services. The overall number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over 11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010.

The management of the Post Office network is an operational matter for the Post Office Limited who are responsible for maintaining the network of branches and achieving the accessibility criteria set by Government. The Post Office does not have a branch closure programme, rather they are franchising branches to ensure services remain in communities and are actively looking for areas of the country where there is a demand for Post Office services, with over 350 local branches opened since April 2017 in new locations. Branches can sometimes close for reasons beyond the Post Office’s control and when this happens the Post Office seeks to restore services for the communities affected.