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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many current and former postmasters were (a) contacted and (b) unable to be traced by the Post Office in response to the opening of the Historical Shortfall Scheme.

There were 27127 letters sent to current and former postmasters notifying them of the scheme.

Additionally, on the 4 May 2020 Post Office Ltd commenced a sustained paid for media campaign, which was used to highlight the scheme’s existence to postmasters in addition to the mailing campaign. This media campaign was covered in over 400 National, Regional and Local newspapers.