HC Deb 08 March 1995 vol 256 c320
3. Mrs. Roche

To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many post offices now have agency status.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Industry and Energy (Mr. Richard Page)

A total of 18,960.

Mrs. Roche

Given that more than 1,300 people in my constituency have signed a petition opposing the change to agency status at Muswell Hill post office and that the senior area manager in charge of that post office has told me that he does not know of one person who supports the change, why are the Government foisting that change on my constituents and on people up and down the country?

Mr. Page

Any proposal to change from Crown to agency status is the decision of Post Office Counters. May I give the hon. Lady a little hope for the future? When such a conversion takes place, an independent survey is made immediately and in 99 per cent. of cases the public have deemed themselves generally satisfied with the move.

Mr. McLoughlin

May I welcome my hon. Friend to his new post? He is absolutely right to say that conversions of Crown post offices have been generally accepted. Will he confirm that one of the usual benefits of the conversion policy is that post offices under agency status open longer and give a far better service to the public? Will he not be distracted by the synthetic strike action which failed miserably this week?

Mr. Page

I thank my hon. Friend for those kind words. He is right; Monday's strike was a miserable flop. Only 75 Crown post offices shut, while 740 stayed open—and of course, the 18,960 agency post offices were still there to provide service to the customer. Moreover, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: when conversions take place, we find that the level of trade increases.