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Delivery Services: Fees and Charges

Asked by Dave DooganScottish National PartyDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 12 May 2025UIN 50553

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help tackle postcode-based delivery surcharges that misclassify accessible regions such as Perthshire as (a) remote and (b) offshore.

Answered by Justin Madders

The postcode is a routing instruction used by Royal Mail to sort and deliver mail quickly and accurately. Individual addresses are therefore not always a geographically accurate description of where a property is located.

Royal Mail updates the Postcode Address File daily and a Code of Practice sets out the process for change requests. The Code of Practice is available on Royal Mail’s website: www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/PAF-Code-of-Practice-211118.pdf.

Any concerns about the way in which a third party, including retailers and other postal operators, is using a postcode or applying a surcharge should be taken up directly with the company or organisation involved.

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