8. To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent discussions his Department has had with the private sector on the future ownership and management of Royal Mail. (264478)

The Department and our advisers have had discussions in recent weeks with a number of potential partners with experience of transforming a major business who are interested in entering into partnership with Royal Mail.

At this stage of the process, only the Dutch postal service TNT has made its interest public.

10. To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps he plans to take to enable Royal Mail to provide mail delivery services on the same basis as its competitors. (264480)

Royal Mail is in a unique position in the postal services market. It is the only company able to deliver to every address in the country every day of the week—99 per cent. of all letters are delivered by Royal Mail.

That is why it is important to modernise Royal Mail rather than simply allow it to decline. The new Postal Services Bill makes it clear that the overriding duty of the regulator in respect of post is to secure the provision of a universal postal service.