Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that the regulatory framework for the postal sector supports (a) reliable and (b) sustainable postal services in (a) Surrey Heath constituency and (b) Surrey.

Royal Mail is an independent business and therefore recruitment and retention policies are for its management. The government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s operational or commercial decisions.

As the independent regulator for the postal sector, it is for Ofcom to oversee Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation and decide how to respond should Royal Mail fail to meet its obligations. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.

In October, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its quality-of-service targets and has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan that delivers major and continuous improvement.