Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information his Department holds on the number of post boxes from which collections are made (a) only before 10am and (b) throughout the day (i) on the Isle of Wight and (ii) nationally; and what the equivalent figures were in 2012.

The Government does not hold any such data. Providing Royal Mail as the designated Universal Service Provider for the UK maintains its network of post-boxes in accordance with the framework set by Ofcom, the postal services regulator, decisions relating to local post boxes are made on operational grounds by Royal Mail’s management.

In 2014, Royal Mail announced plans to increase the number of post-boxes around the country to account for any local impact of new collection times. The company’s initiative involved moving low volume post-boxes to “collection on delivery” with postal workers emptying the box on their delivery round rather than providing an additional dedicated collection by van. In such cases, Royal Mail have said that they will ensure that there is a late-posting box within half a mile of each post-box that is restricted to earlier collections and that there will be clear sign-posting for customers on relevant post-boxes notifying them of their nearest late-posting box.

The majority of the 115,000 post-boxes around the country do however retain a 4pm or later final collection.