Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what avenues of redress are available to residents of Easington constituency affected by persistent delays in the delivery of letters by Royal Mail.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
I have been frank in my discussions with Royal Mail’s leadership that quality of service has been unacceptable for too long and the pace of improvement must increase.
Individuals experiencing service failures are encouraged to raise these directly with the Royal Mail through its formal complaints process as there are escalation and compensation procedures in place, where applicable. Further information is available on Royal Mail’s website.
Where an eligible complaint remains unresolved, it may be escalated to the independent postal redress service (POSTRS) to investigate, with further information available online.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, if he will establish an independent public inquiry into Royal Mail's fulfilment of its Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Whilst the government has been clear that Royal Mail’s service has been unacceptable for too long, there are no plans to establish an independent inquiry or legislative proposals to remove the company’s use of Royal Family wording, branding, and imagery. The government is focused on pushing Royal Mail to rapidly improve its service.
Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is responsible monitoring and enforcing Royal Mail’s service standards under the universal service obligation. Ofcom is currently investigating Royal Mail’s service performance for 2025-26 and will take regulatory action where necessary to hold the company to account for improving service standards.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to remove Royal Mail's entitlement to use wording, branding and imagery associated with the Royal Family if it continues to fail to meet its Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Whilst the government has been clear that Royal Mail’s service has been unacceptable for too long, there are no plans to establish an independent inquiry or legislative proposals to remove the company’s use of Royal Family wording, branding, and imagery. The government is focused on pushing Royal Mail to rapidly improve its service.
Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is responsible monitoring and enforcing Royal Mail’s service standards under the universal service obligation. Ofcom is currently investigating Royal Mail’s service performance for 2025-26 and will take regulatory action where necessary to hold the company to account for improving service standards.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has held with the Ministerial Colleagues regarding the future funding arrangements for BBC World Service.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
As part of the BBC Charter Review, DCMS Ministers have held discussions with colleagues across Government on a wide range of issues, including the BBC World Service. The Government is committed to a successful BBC World Service that provides impartial, accurate news to a global audience.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many allegations of offences under section 77 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 were received by the Information Commissioner's Office in each of the last five years; and how many such allegations resulted in (a) an interview under caution and (b) a prosecution in each year.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
While DCMS acts as the sponsor department within government, the Information Commission is independent of government and accountable to Parliament. Government policy for Freedom of Information sits with the Cabinet Office.
The Information Commission’s Criminal Investigations team receives referrals for potential Section 77 offences. In 2022, they received 48, in 2023 they received 17, in 2024 they received 15, in 2025 they received 14 and in 2026 they have received seven so far. These have led to one interview under caution in 2023. There is a high evidential threshold for pursuing criminal investigations under section 77, and a six-month time limit for commencing a prosecution. The Information Commission provides information and guidance on the Freedom of Information Act, and anyone concerned that an offence may have been committed can raise those concerns with the Commission.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If she will provide an estimate of the number of merchant seafarers working on short sea international ferry services in scope of Section 5 of the Seafarers Wages Act 2023 (as amended).
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Whilst the Department cannot give exact figures, an impact assessment was published for the Act, which makes some assumptions about the number of seafarers on board different vessel types per journey in order to estimate costs to businesses, but it does not make any estimates of the total number of seafarers in scope of the Seafarers Wages Act 2023. The Impact Assessment can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62e2aa8ed3bf7f75af0923d5/seafarers-wages-impact-assessment.pdf.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has she made on the implementation of Make Work Pay policies for merchant seafarers regularly working from UK ports; and when he last had discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and (b) Energy Security and Net Zero on these policies.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport concluded its consultation on regulations to strengthen seafarer protections on UK-France and UK-Channel Island services, using new powers introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025, on 17 July 2026. We will be responding to the consultation in the coming weeks.
We have already made changes to collective redundancy rules, ensuring that employers of seafarers working on vessels calling at a UK port at least 120 times a year must notify the UK government of collective redundancies, even if the vessel is registered outside the UK.
Department for Transport officials are in regular contact with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade about the application of employment rights, including those included in the Make Work Pay programme, to seafarers, and with the Department of Energy, Security and Net Zero on the application of employment rights to seafarers working in the offshore energy sector.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many investigations of passenger complaints against (a) ferry and (b) cruise operators regarding accessibility of services from ports in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland the Maritime and Coastguard Agency undertook in each year since 2021-22.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The MCA has reviewed readily accessible records covering 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. Records earlier than 2024-25 were not able to be produced /obtained within the time frame.
These records identify that one investigation has been undertaken by the MCA of passenger complaints against (a) ferry and (b) cruise operators regarding accessibility of services from ports in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on (a) enforcement and (b) compliance of the Seafarers Wages Act 2023 (as amended).
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport maintains frequent and regular engagement with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on both enforcement of, and compliance with, the Seafarers’ Wages Act 2023.
The MCA is responsible for enforcement of the Act and takes a proportionate approach, working with harbour authorities and operators to support compliance while using its statutory enforcement powers where necessary.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2026 to Question 34741, whether any surcharges have been imposed by harbour authorities on any operators of international ferry services under the (a) Seafarers’ Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and (b) Seafarers’ Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Seafarers' Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and 2026 do not make specific provision for surcharges, as these Regulations are for the purpose of uprating the National Minimum Wage equivalent rate in line with the National Minimum Wage. Provision for surcharges is made under the Seafarers' Wages Act 2023 and the Seafarers' Wages Regulations 2024. As per my answers of 19 October to Question 34741 and 12 October to Question 29386, no surcharges have been imposed on operators under this legislation since it came into force on 1 December 2024.