Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of Royal Mail’s delivery performance in rural areas.

The government is committed to an efficient universal service for users throughout the UK, including those in remote and rural areas.

It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to monitor Royal Mail’s service standards. The regulator sets Royal Mail enforceable targets to deliver a certain proportion of 1^st and 2^nd class post on time each year. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.