Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of Royal Mail's compliance with the universal service obligation in each postal code area in Witham constituency in each week of (a) 2023 and (b) 2024; on how many occasions each post code area in (i) Essex and (ii) Witham constituency did not receive (A) letters and (B) parcels in accordance with the universal service obligation since 1 January 2023; and what steps she is taking to ensure that Royal Mail complies with the universal service obligation in (1) Essex and (2) Witham constituency.

As the independent regulator for the postal sector, it is for Ofcom to monitor Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation and decide how to respond should Royal Mail fail to meet its obligations.

Ofcom fined the business £5.6m for failing to meet its service delivery targets in 2022-23 and is closely monitoring Royal Mail’s performance to ensure service issues are addressed as a priority.

I met Mr Seidenberg, the CEO of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services, to directly raise concerns about performance and will continue to do so if service levels do not improve.