Last month the Business and Trade Committee launched a snap
investigation into Royal Mail's letter delivery service, after
widespread reports of late and missing letters, or letters
bunched together for delivery days after they were due. This has
led to important notices, medical appointments or celebrations
being missed, and concerns that the essential letter service is
being de-prioritised in favour of the more lucrative parcel
service.
In response to the Committee's initial inquiries, Royal Mail
admits they don't record specific data on when they deprioritise
letters in favour of parcels. Their "letter sorting technology is
designed to group letters together due for delivery on a
specified day” but they insist “we would not hold back mail if
that meant it would miss its target delivery date”.
But Royal Mail is missing its targets. Royal Mail leans on
overall figure of 92.1% of mail delivered on time – but this
obscures the fact that only 74.9% of First Class mail was
delivered on time so far this year against a target of 93%. That
translates into approximately 126 million First Class letters
arriving late over the year.
- Around 126 million First Class letters on track to be
delivered late this year - a quarter of all that were sent –
despite a new price increase from next month, to £1.80 for a
First Class stamp (almost three times the cost of ten years ago).
- Royal Mail admits they don't record specific data on the
instances where they deprioritise letters in favour of parcels,
though statistical analysis on meeting their regulatory standards
across their 1200 delivery centres does show them that 99.5%
address coverage would be need needed as a proxy for hitting the
First Class quality target of 90% next-day delivery.
- The existing Second Class service is performing better than
First Class even if still way off target at 90.2% delivered on
time within three days – translating to around 93 million being
delivered late across the year.
- In October 2025 Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21million, saying its
improvement plan was “urgent” - but five months later Royal Mail
are still saying they can't publish it until talks with postal
worker union CWU conclude.
On 24 March, Royal Mail will appear in Parliament alongside Ofcom
and CWU to answer questions on the letter delivery performance
and improvement plans.
The 500 year-old Royal Mail's buyout was cleared by shareholders
in April last year, after new owners EP Group gave the Government
legal undertakings that they would maintain the “one price goes
anywhere” Universal Service Obligation. Ahead of the deal, EP
Group's CEO Daniel Křetínský told the BBC he would honour the
letter delivery service "for as long as I am alive".
In July Ofcom announced significant changes to the USO, with
Second Class deliveries dropped down to every second day, Monday
to Friday only. Royal Mail would get new “backstop” targets
to for mail it delivers up to two days late, and report against
those too.
