Postal Services: Universal Service Obligation
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with OFCOM on a) the business challenges facing Royal Mail and (b) Royal Mail's ability to meet the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Blair McDougall
Ministers and officials meet with Ofcom regularly to discuss a range of issues in relation to its role as the independent regulator for the postal sector.
It is for Ofcom to oversee Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation and decide how to respond should Royal Mail fail to meet its obligations. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.
In October, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its quality-of-service targets and has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan that delivers major and continuous improvement.
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