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170287

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Post Offices: Worcestershire
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many post offices were closed in (a) Worcester and (b) Worcestershire (i) between 1997 and 2010 and (ii) between 2010 and 2015.
tabling member constituency	Worcester
tabling member printed	Mr Robin Walker
uin	218796
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p>The Government understands the important role that post offices play in communities across the country and since 2010 has committed nearly £2 billion to maintain, modernise and protect a network of at least 11,500 branches that continues to meet strict access criteria that see, for example, 95% of the urban population living within one mile of a post office outlet.</p><p> </p><p>This Government has also committed that there will be no programme of Post Office closures. There are currently around 11,700 post office branches in the UK, with the Post Office network at its most stable for over two decades.</p><p> </p><p>The information requested is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited and I understand from the company that it does not hold information in the format requested. For your reference I include historic information on the number of open Post Office branches at national level and by the West Midlands Government Office region in the tables below:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Number of open post offices in the UK</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Number of open Post Office branches</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of March 1997</p></td><td><p>19251</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of March 2010</p></td><td><p>11905</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of Sept 2014</p></td><td><p>11631</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Number of open post offices in West Midlands Government Office region (historic figures are only available from the year 2000)</p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Number of open Post Office branches</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of March 2000</p></td><td><p>1479</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of March 2010</p></td><td><p>930</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>End of Sept 2014</p></td><td><p>904</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 05/01/2015 11:22:53 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker

170291

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Post Offices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many post offices have been refurbished as a result of the Government's £2 billion investment in the Post Office Network since 2010 in (a) Worcester, (b) Worcestershire and (c) England.
tabling member constituency	Worcester
tabling member printed	Mr Robin Walker
uin	218797
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p>The Government understands the important role that post offices play in communities across the country and since 2010 has committed nearly £2 billion to maintain, modernise and protect the network. This is an historic commitment, and is designed to ensure that the Post Office has a vibrant, successful and financially sustainable long-term future where is it less reliant on an annual taxpayer funded subsidy.</p><p> </p><p>The Post Office is undertaking the largest modernisation programme in its history and network transformation is seeing subpostmasters receiving public investment to improve their branches; delivering benefits to customers including longer opening hours, more convenient access and improved branch environments. To date over 3,500 branches have converted to the new Main and Local models and nearly 290 of the Post Office’s directly owned Crown post offices have benefitted from investment.</p><p> </p><p>The following table sets out the numbers of post offices that have received investment in the areas requested:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td><p>Number of post offices that</p><p>have received investment</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Worcester</p></td><td><p>8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Worcestershire</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>West Midlands Government Office Region</p></td><td><p>302</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>England</p></td><td><p>3173</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 05/01/2015 14:03:59 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker

170296

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Scottish Power
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made on implementing the findings of the original report compiled by the Office of Fair Trading and Department of Trade and Industry regarding the collapse of Scottish Power's Power Plan.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Walton
tabling member printed	Steve Rotheram
uin	218594
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/01/2015 answer text <p>Statutory investigations by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Business, Innovation and Skills) using Companies Act powers are confidential and their findings cannot be disclosed outside strict statutory gateways.</p><p> </p><p>The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) did not directly investigate the collapse of Scottish Power’s Power Plan. In 2003 an investigation was undertaken by the OFT into the terms and conditions used in contracts with consumers purchasing goods under the PowerPlan scheme sold by Scottish Power plc. As a result a series of recommendations regarding those terms and conditions were made to the companies who operated the scheme, and I understand that the recommendations were implemented by the companies before they entered insolvency.</p><p> </p><p>More generally, the OFT investigated the market for extended warranties in the UK in 2002 and, having found that competition in the market did not appear to be working effectively, referred the market to the Competition Commission (CC). Following the CC’s report in 2003, the DTI implemented the Supply of Extended Warranties on Domestic Electrical Goods Order which came into force in April 2005. The OFT undertook a further study of the market for extended warranties in 2012.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 06/01/2015 17:15:43 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	4035 label Biography information for Steve Rotheram

170547

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Women and Equalities
answering dept id	31
answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
hansard heading	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what estimate she has made of the savings to the Government Equalities Office from the Q&A system in the (a) 12 months and (b) five years since 4 June 2014; what additional ICT systems or improvements to existing systems the Government Equalities Office has introduced or plans to introduce that would not have been feasible without the Q&A system; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which the system has made it easier to answer questions from hon. Members on time.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	218782
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2015 answer text <p>No estimates have been made of the savings to the Government Equalities Office from the introduction of the Q&amp;A system or of the extent to which the system has improved the way it answers questions from Hon. Members. There are no plans to introduce any ICT systems that would not have been feasible without the Q&amp;A system. It will be for the Procedure Committee to evaluate the effectiveness of the new system in improving performance when it assesses the evidence following the end of the session.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 05/01/2015 15:17:18 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah