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 the effect of the closure of post office counter services on vulnerable older customers; and what alternatives are available to those customers.

The Government recognises the important role post offices play in communities across the county, especially for the Post Office’s more vulnerable and elderly customers.

With over 11,600 post offices in the UK, the Post Office network is at its most stable in decades due to the significant investment that has been made to maintain and protect it. This investment has delivered the fresher customer environments, increased opening hours and greater efficiency needed to succeed in Post Office’s competitive and changing markets.

Post Offices are offering nearly a million extra opening hours every month and there are more than 4,400 branches open on Sunday, making Post Office the country’s largest Sunday retail network. Nearly 93% of the UK population live within one mile of their nearest post office, and over 99% within three miles.