Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of the total rural population in Wales was within three miles of (a) Local, (b) Local Plus, (c) Main or Crown and (d) mobile outreach Post Office branches in the latest period for which data is available.

The Government protects the Post Office network by setting minimum access criteria to ensure that 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office. These criteria ensure that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.

Post Office network coverage data is not available in the detail requested. However, according to the most recent Post Office Annual Network Report, there were 566 rural branches in Wales as of March 2023.