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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Post Office Ltd on the closure of Crown Post Offices; and if he will make a statement.

BEIS Ministers and officials engage regularly with representatives of Post Office Limited on a range of strategic issues of mutual interest. While the Post Office is publicly owned, it is a commercial business operating in competitive markets. The Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office – to maintain a national network accessible to all and to do so more sustainably for the taxpayer – and allows the company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent business. Therefore, issues relating to the Post Office network, including Crown Post Offices and franchising agreements with WHSmith, are all operational matters for Post Office Limited.

Most of the UK’s Post Office network of over 11,500 branches (almost 98%) already operates successfully on a franchise or agency basis. Research by Citizens Advice (June 2017) found that franchised branches are delivering to the same, or better, standards.