§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will take steps to prevent post office closures in rural Scotland; and if he will make a statement. [102689]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonThe Government are committed to the maintenance of a nationwide network of post offices and will, for the first time, publish access criteria which the new Regulator will have a duty to monitor. The criteria will aim to ensure that everyone in the UK has reasonable access to post office counter services. The Government are making a substantial contribution to the costs of automating the counters network to strengthen the viability of the network in the longer term and the Performance and Innovation Unit in the Cabinet Office is carrying out an urgent study on the post office network. Various rate relief schemes apply to many rural post offices.
§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post offices have closed in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland in each of the last five years. [102688]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonI understand from the Post Office that historic information on the number of post office closures in each parliamentary constituency is not held and cannot be readily compiled. The number of post offices closed in Scotland in 1998–99 was 21.
§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post offices there were in each Scottish parliamentary constituency in each of the last five years. [102687]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonI understand from the Post Office that historic information on the number of post offices in each parliamentary constituency is not held and cannot be382W readily compiled. They have supplied the numbers of post offices in each Scottish parliamentary constituency as at October 1999 and these are set out as follows:
Constituency Number of post offices Aberdeen Central 17 Aberdeen North 12 Aberdeen South 17 Airdrie and Shotts 21 Angus 24 Argyll and Bute 88 Ayr 19 Banff and Buchan 40 Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross 53 Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley 39 Central Fife 20 Clydebank and Milngavie 11 Clydesdale 31 Coatbridge and Chryston 18 Cumbernauld and Kilsyth 13 Cunninghame North 27 Cunninghame South 14 Dumbarton 30 Dumfries 45 Dundee East 18 Dundee West 13 Dunfermline East 25 Dunfermline West 25 East Kilbride 12 East Lothian 28 Eastwood 16 Edinburgh Central 20 Edinburgh East and Musselburgh 21 Edinburgh North and Leith 22 Edinburgh Pentlands 16 Edinburgh South 17 Edinburgh West 22 Falkirk East 22 Falkirk West 23 Galloway and Upper Nithsdale 59 Glasgow Anniesland 14 Glasgow Baillieston 13 Glasgow Cathcart 13 Glasgow Govan 16 Glasgow Kelvin 23 Glasgow Maryhill 11 Glasgow Pollock 14 Glasgow Rutherglen 16 Glasgow Shettleston 11 Glasgow Springburn 18 Gordon 37 Greenock and Inverclyde 19 Hamilton North and Bellshill 14 Hamilton South 10 Inverness East Nairn and Lochaber 59 Kilmarnock and Loudoun 20 Kirkcaldy 21 Linlithgow 16 Livingston 22 Midlothian 22 Moray 37 Motherwell and Wishaw 17 North East Fife 35 North Tayside 50 Ochil 24 Orkney and Shetland 74 Paisley North 15 Paisley South 17 Perth 31 Ross Skye and Inverness West 84 Roxburgh and Berwickshire 42 Stirling 37 Strathkelvin and Bearsden 17 Tweeddale Ettrick and Lauderdale 32 West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine 45 West Renfrewshire 17 Western Isles 68