Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to improve the sustainability of post office services in rural areas.

As announced in the Government’s recent response to the Green Paper, we are protecting the sustainability of the Post Office network by retaining the minimum 11,500 branches and keeping all geographical Access Criteria. This will ensure that communities across the UK - including rural and remote areas - continue to have local and reliable access to Post Office services.

Furthermore, the Government continues to support the rural network by providing an annual network subsidy on the basis that Post Office meets the Government-set Access Criteria. For the 2025/26 financial year, the Government has confirmed that the network subsidy will be up to £83 million.