To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if his Department will provide funding for local authorities to provide post office services where Post Office branches have been identified for closure. (193694)

The Government have committed an annual subsidy of £150 million a year up to 2011 to support a sustainable post office network of around 11,500 outlets. To the extent that individual communities or local authorities wish to support additional provision above that level, that will be their financial responsibility.