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 trends in the level of use of Post Office branches for banking.

The Government recognises the value of post offices to communities across the UK and understands that they are an important option for customers and small businesses to access a range of financial, mails and Government services. The Post Office estimates that it processed over 110 million banking transactions last year - a six per cent increase on the previous year.

Last month, a new industry wide agreement between the Post Office and UK banks came into effect which means that 99 per cent of UK personal bank customers and over 75 per cent of business customers are now able to do their day-to-day banking at the Post Office.