HC Deb 26 February 2002 vol 380 c1120W
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her definition is of(a) the term `rural' defined with respect to rural post offices and (b) the term 'community' defined with respect to community post offices. [37600]

Mr. Alexander

A rural post office is defined as one serving a community of up to 10,000 inhabitants. Community offices are post offices which keep shorter hours than usual in response to local conditions.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry who is entitled to apply for funds from the fund which has been established to sustain community post offices; what the eligibility criteria are; and what attempts have been made to inform post offices of the fund. [37599]

Mr. Alexander

I refer to the answer given to the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce) of 10 December 2001,Official Report, column 650W.

The former Minister for Competitiveness wrote to every parish and community council in the UK in March 2001 to announce the fund which is now promoted by rural transfer advisers from Post Office Limited.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what actions have been taken to prevent the avoidable closure of post offices; and what her definition is of the term avoidable closure defined in this context. [37601]

Mr. Alexander

Post Office Ltd. has set up a team of rural transfer advisers to explore options for keeping rural sub-post offices open and is administering the £2 million Government fund to assist volunteer and community initiatives to maintain or re-establish post office services in rural communities. Through such measures, Post Office Ltd. is continuing its efforts to reopen sub-post offices where there have been recent closures.

Consignia define an unavoidable closure of a post office as one where no one suitable is prepared to take over from the departing sub-postmaster, where no suitable premises remain available or can be identified or where an associated retail business is no longer commercially viable.