§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the role of community post offices in the post office re-invention programme. [13762]
§ Mr. Alexander[holding answer 9 November 2001]: Among the Performance and Innovation Unit report recommendations, all of which were accepted by Government, was that there should be a programme of modernisation and reinvention of the urban network. This reinvention programme will not be relevant to community post offices, defined by Post Office Ltd. as small rural offices with restricted opening hours, which fall within the rural network of offices serving settlements with less than 10,000 residents.