Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department had discussions with the Royal Mail on the Printed Postage Impressions system prior to 2013.

Operational matters, which include those relating to the Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government is not involved in the day- to-day operations of the company and does not play a role in handling or resolving issues in relation to postage fraud.

Royal Mail has a well-established process in place to deal with suspected postage fraud. This is handled by the Royal Mail Revenue Protection team, who would be best placed to answer any queries in relation to this issue.