§ Mr. RuffleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the take-up of the Post Office card account in(a) Suffolk, (b) Norfolk and (c) Essex; and what the UK national average take-up is. [131840]
§ Mr. TimmsNone. However, the Department for Work and Pensions regularly place data on Direct Payment of benefits and pensions in the Libraries of the House. This includes figures on how many people have said they want to open a Post Office card account.
I understand from the Department for Work and Pensions that as of 3 October 2003, 1.25 million customers had requested a Post Office card account. I understand from the Post Office that some 787,000 Post Office card accounts had been opened by that same date.
Information is not available in the format requested.