Departments: Postal Services

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what volume of correspondence his Department sent (a) by Royal Mail and (b) by other commercial delivery services in each of the last five years; and what the reasons were for the use of other commercial delivery services. (150442)

The information is tabled as follows:

*Outgoing lst/2nd Class Royal Mail Volumes from DTI HQ Buildings*
	Number
2002-03	426,301
2003-04	526,654
2004-05	341,761
2005-06	271,396
2006-07	194,831

*Royal Mail Special Delivery Items*
	Number
2002-03	2,117
2003-04	2,189
2004-05	1,499
2005-06	1,543
2006-07	1,911

*Royal Mail International*
	Number
2002-03	16,449
2003-04	10,799
2004-05	9,848
2005-06	7,393
2006-07	5,824

*Royal Mail Same Day Courier Service Consignments*¹
	Number
2004-05	3,074
2005-06	2,941
2006-07	2,536
¹ Other commercial delivery services used at present are Parcelforce for UK timed next day/48-hour courier services and Lewis Day Transport for international courier services.

*Parcelforce Consignments*¹
	Number
2004-05	4,636
2005-06	5,910
2006-07	4,664
¹ Figures recorded from beginning of current contracts. Prior information not available.

*Lewis Day Consignments*¹
	Number
2004-05	513
2005-06	853
2006-07	824
¹ Figures recorded from beginning of current contracts. Prior information not available.

Other service providers include Government Mail and FCO Diplomatic Bag which I would not class as commercial delivery services.

Volume 463: debated on Monday 10 September 2007