Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many sub post offices there were in each year since 2012.

The table below shows the number of post office branches open since 2012. Government requires Post Office to maintain a network of at least 11,500 branches, and to fulfil access criteria, which ensures that 99% of the population lives within 3 miles of a Post Office. 2020-2021 was the only period in the last ten years where the number of branches fell below the Government-set 11,500 minimum, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. During this period Government granted a waiver which permitted the Post Office to have fewer than 11,500 open branches. The numbers of post office branches for 2022/23 have not yet been published.