Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Department's Answer to Question 36404, when his Department intends to next meet with Royal Mail to discuss the NHS barcode option.

Ministers meet with Royal Mail regularly in its capacity as the universal service provider and I have been frank in my conversations with the company’s leadership, and with my statements to the House in recent debates, that service performance has been unacceptable for too long and that the pace of improvement must increase including in relation to concerns about the NHS barcode system.

The Secretary of State and I met with Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union on 3 November 2026, and we stressed the importance of management and the workforce working together constructively to improve service going forward.