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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what the cost to Ofcom was of carrying out its postal regulation functions in each of the last five financial years; and what proportion of that cost was recovered from Royal Mail.

Under Schedule 4 to the Postal Services Act 2011, Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, are required to publish the cost of carrying out postal regulation functions. These are available in their annual reports, published on Ofcom’s website.

Across the last five financial years, Ofcom’s cash operating expenditure on postal regulation amounted to: £4.4m in 2025/26, £4.4m in 2024/25, £5.0m in 2023/24, £4.7m in 2022/23, and £5.5m in 2021/22.

Ofcom may recover the costs of carrying out its postal regulatory functions through charges on relevant postal operators. Budgeted fees that Ofcom charges its stakeholders are published online.