Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to prevent the closure of local post offices.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Government is committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Post Office network and has provided over £2.5 billion in funding to support the Post Office network over the past decade and is providing a further £628 million for the Post Office between 2022 and 2025.
The Post Office network is not in decline. As CEO Nick Read confirmed recently, the network is as large as it has been for about five years with around 11,700 branches. Government continues to monitor Post Office's network numbers and performance, and Post Office publishes an annual network report.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to improve processes for reporting businesses selling age-restricted products to underage customers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Enforcement of sales of age-restricted products is governed by distinct legislation and the respective lead department.
The Department supports enforcement efforts in England and Wales through funding for Citizens Advice Consumer Service, to relay crucial intelligence to local Trading Standards. To report suspected illegal sales to minors, the public is encouraged to contact Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133, or Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000.
Additionally, individuals can report suspected traders to the police using the non-emergency number, 101.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what specific steps she is taking to support (a) Post Offices and (b) convenience stores with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Our business rates package announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement will help the high streets and small businesses. This comes after the Government reversed the Health and Social Care Levy, enabling smaller firms to reduce their National Insurance bills even further by increasing the Employment Allowance.
Furthermore, on 9 January, the Government announced the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. Under the new scheme, eligible non-domestic customers receive a per-unit discount to their energy bills during the 12-month period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, subject to a threshold level of £107/MWh for gas and £302/MWh of electricity. This scheme followed the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which ensured business were protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
Additionally, in April 2023, Post Office made improvements to postmasters’ remuneration, including increasing payments for banking deposit transactions by 20%. This is in addition to improvements made by Post Office in August 2022.