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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to help protect jobs in the Royal Mail.

Operational matters, including decisions on staffing levels and workforce structure, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail’s management. The Government is not involved in the operational decisions of Royal Mail, a private company.

Collective redundancy legislation requires employers proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant from one establishment in a 90-day period to consult employees or their representatives. This must include consultation on ways to avoid redundancies, reducing the numbers of redundancies, or mitigating their impact.