Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Post Office branches have closed in (a) North West Durham constituency, (b)the North East and (c) the UK since 2010.

The Government values and recognises the important role that the Post Office plays in North West Durham and other communities across the North East and the UK. This is why we committed in our 2017 Manifesto to safeguard the Post Office network and protect existing rural services. This strategy, backed by Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010, has delivered a branch network that is at its most stable and accessible in decades, with over 11,500 branches.

The Post Office reports annually on the size and shape of the network; the most recent report can be found at http://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/modernising-post-office. The report shows the number of branches in the network so that the change can be seen year on

year.

The information requested is set out below. The vast majority of the Post Office network is operated on an agency/franchise basis with branches located in retail premises. The figures show the number of Directly Managed Branches operated by the Post Office and the number of Agency branches.

Source: Post Office Limited