Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to address the increase in missed deliveries against targets by the Royal Mail.

Ofcom, the independent regulator for postal services, monitors and assesses Royal Mail’s provision of the universal service. It can investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification.

I met Royal Mail’s CEO, Alistair Cochrane, on 3 February to press him on the action Royal Mail is taking to make demonstrable improvements to service levels as a matter of urgency. I will continue to raise concerns with Royal Mail if the company’s quality of service does not improve.

Royal Mail has publicly committed to publishing a detailed deployment and quality of service improvement plan as soon as possible following the conclusion of its discussions with the Communication Workers Union.