Royal Mail investigated over ‘unacceptable’ service

Royal Mail has fallen well short of its delivery targets, prompting an investigation by Ofcom into its delivery services and whether it is making sufficient progress towards achieving its obligations.

Royal Mail is not nationalised, it is a privately owned company. However, it is obligated to maintain minimum standards of service delivery – standards which were modernised last year by Ofcom to reflect the general decline in the number of letters being sent in the UK.

Ofcom noted that Royal Mail has only now reached an agreement with the Communication Workers Union to implement its revised delivery model, which aims to significantly improve its delivery service in line with targets set by the regulator.

While Ofcom welcomed that an agreement has been reached to begin reforming Royal Mail’s delivery service, it noted that has taken almost a year to begin the implementation of delivery reforms.

The regulator said that in the meantime, service levels have remained ‘unacceptable’, which is why it has now opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s performance last year.

In the year ended March 2026, Royal Mail only delivered 75.7% of its First Class mail the next working day – far short of its target of 93%. Additionally, Royal Mail is obligated to deliver 98.5% of its Second Class mail within three working days – it only managed 90.2% last year.

Ofcom revised these targets as of April 2026, now only requiring Royal Mail to deliver 90% of First Class mail within one working day and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days. Even under these watered-down standards, Royal Mail’s most recent delivery performance results fail to meet its obligations.

Ofcom will consider Royal Mail’s delivery performance results for the last year and all relevant factors during its investigation. If it finds that the company has failed to meet its obligations, it may issue Royal Mail with a fine, as it has done every year since 2023.

“A reliable postal service is vital to many people across the country. We share the deep frustrations of customers who have missed important letters because of Royal Mail’s consistent failure to improve its service over the years,” said Ofcom Enforcement Director Ian Strawhorne.

“While the company is now making progress through its improvement plan, we will continue to hold it to account for its unacceptable performance to date.”

The watchdog said it expects Royal Mail to begin implementing delivery reforms immediately now that it has reached an agreement to roll out a new delivery model.

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