Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of implications for her policies of the Post Office Ltd policy to reclassify some main post office branches as Local Plus; and if he will make a statement.

While publicly owned, the Post Office operates at arm’s length from Government. Government sets the high-level parameters for the Post Office, but it is the Post Office Chief Executive, together with the Board of Directors, who are responsible for running Post Office day-to-day and the company has the commercial freedom to deliver the branch network within the parameters set by Government.

Government continues to protect the branch network by setting minimum access criteria, and protects services by setting minimum services to be provided at post offices across the country. Decisions about individual branches are made by Post Office Limited.