Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of post office closures on (a) high-streets and (b) consumers in Essex.

Government fully appreciates the impact a Post Office branch closure can have on a community. It knows it can be disruptive, particularly for communities who don’t have nearby alternatives.

Although Post Office has the freedom to make commercial decisions regarding the composition of its network, Government protects the Post Office network and high street post offices by setting minimum access criteria. These include the requirements which ensure for example that in urban areas, 95% of the total population across the UK live within 1 mile of their nearest post office and in urban deprived areas 99% live within 1 mile of their nearest post office. The Government-set access criteria ensures that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.