To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of sub-postmasters in (a) Glasgow and (b) Glasgow South West constituency likely to take up compensated exit from the network as a result of the Network Change Programme.

Network Change was a post office closure programme funded by the Labour Government between 2007 and 2009, which saw the mandatory closure of around 2,500 post offices.

This coalition Government is investing £1.34 billion to maintain the post office network at its current size with no programme of closures, and to provide for the modernisation and improvement of up to 6,000 post offices under the Network Transformation programme. Network Transformation started in October 2012 and offers subpostmasters the choice of converting their branches to new operating models, leaving the network with compensation if a replacement subpostmaster has been identified to continue access to services, or to stay as they are.

How subpostmasters in Glasgow or Glasgow South West in particular choose to participate in the Network Transformation is a personal decision for them. At the end of June 2013, six post offices in Glasgow had converted to the new operating models, of which one, Govan Post Office, is in Glasgow South West constituency. Independent research shows customer satisfaction with the new models is well above 90%, higher than for traditional post offices.