§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many sub-post offices have been closed in(a) Cambridgeshire and (b) the constituency of Huntingdon in each year since 1997. [172632]
§ Mr. TimmsI am advised by Post Office Ltd. that data on post office closures by county or Parliamentary constituency is not available in the form requested as the company does not require this data for its operational purposes. However, I understand that since March 2000 the company has recorded details of post office closures 509W on the basis of Government region and in the East of England region as a whole, the numbers of net closures were as follows:
Region: East of England Number 2000–01 70 2001–02 21 2002–03 33 Post Office Ltd. produces statistics on post office closures on a quarterly basis. The latest data on net closures by region currently available for year 2003–04 is to the end of December 2003. Data for the quarter to end March 2004 is expected shortly. There were 61 net closures of post offices in the East of England region to the end of December 2003. These figures include a total of 55 closures in the East of England region under the urban reinvention programme since its commencement in late 2002.