§ Mr. FlookTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which post offices Consignia is planning to close in the Taunton constituency; and if she will make a statement. [74088]
§ Mr. TimmsThe programme to restructure the urban post office network has not yet started and I am advised by Post Office Limited that, until it does, there are no specific plans for post office closures in the Taunton constituency. When the programme starts it will be taken forward in consultation with individual subpostmasters, the community, local stakeholders and Postwatch.
The objective of the urban network restructuring programme is to ensure that subpostmasters have the opportunity to build a viable business as well as to provide modernised and improved facilities which meet customers' needs and expectations and are in the right location for the local community.
§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her latest estimate is of the number of post offices and sub post offices that are likely to close over the next three years; and if she will make a statement. [74494]
§ Mr. TimmsPost Office Ltd will take forward an urban network restructuring programme whose objective will be to ensure that subpostmasters have the opportunity to build a viable business as well as to provide modernised and improved facilities which meet customers' needs and expectations and are in the right location for the local community. The programme will involve a significant number of urban post office closures over the next three years, but it is not yet known precisely how many. In rural areas, the Government has committed that there should be no avoidable post office closures before at least 2006. There has been a sharp fall in the number of rural closures.
§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on how many sub post offices have closed in(a) gross and (b) net terms in each month since 1997. [74590]
§ Ms HewittSince 1997 net annual figures for post office closures are:
March 1997 163 March 1998 243 March 1999 233 March 2000 382 March 2001 547 March 2002 262 I understand from Post Office Limited that gross closure figures have only been available on a quarterly basis from September 2000 and neither gross nor net closure figures are available on a monthly basis.