Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has taken recent steps to help support (a) the universal service obligation held by and (b) the financial sustainability of Royal Mail.

The Government’s objective continues to be ensuring the provision of a sustainable, accessible, and affordable universal postal service. Ofcom is the independent regulator for postal services and it has the power and responsibility under the Postal Services Act 2011 to regulate the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient UK universal postal service.

Ofcom has in place a monitoring regime that seeks to identify any threats or risks to the universal postal service and it publishes on its website an annual report summarising its monitoring programme which includes an assessment of Royal Mail’s overall financial position:

www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/information-for-the-postal-industry/monitoring_reports.