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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the level of reliability of private parcel delivery and courier services on small and medium sized businesses.

We want to see all delivery companies provide a good level of service for customers and businesses and the government has been clear that some operators need to do more to meet the expectations of their customers.

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the parcel delivery sector, and it monitors the experiences of businesses and consumers of parcel delivery services. Ofcom’s last annual post monitoring report found that around eight in ten SMEs were satisfied overall with delivery services.

Ofcom has, however, recognised growing concerns about parcel operators’ delivery performance and is keeping the need for enforcement or additional regulation under review.