Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that post boxes remain within an appropriately close distance to all homes so that universal provision of the service is maintained.

Ofcom’s regulatory framework requires Royal Mail to ensure that, for the UK as a whole, the premises of not less than 95% of users of postal services are within 5 kilometres of an access point (such as a post box, a Post Office or a Customer Service Point within a Delivery Office) and, in all postcode areas, the premises of 95% of users of postal services are within 10 kilometres of such an access point.

In its 2022 review of postal regulations, which included a public consultation, Ofcom decided to maintain this regulation as it considered that it remained appropriate to ensure widespread access to the universal postal service.