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

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofcom regarding its regulation of the Royal Mail’s terms of access to the Postcode Address File in the last 12 months; and what was the outcome of those discussions.

The Postcode Address File is a privately-owned dataset. Ofcom’s regulations require Royal Mail to provide access to the Postcode Address File on reasonable terms.

Ministers and officials have regular discussions with Ofcom in its capacity as the independent regulator of postal services. If there were matters relevant to the Postcode Address File, they would be discussed in this forum.