Citizens Advice responds to Royal Mail's end of year figures showing it missed its delivery targets

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https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about ... y-targets/

Responding to Royal Mail's latest quality of service results, which show the company hasn’t met its delivery targets for 1st or 2nd class post for the financial year 2025/26, Tom MacInnes, Director of Policy at Citizens Advice, said:

“It’s completely unacceptable that six years have now passed since Royal Mail last met an annual delivery target. For the company, poor performance is business as usual.

“What’s worse, Royal Mail claims people will have to wait another year until it can meet its new, lower delivery targets set by Ofcom, which came into effect last month. The light at the end of the tunnel will feel even further away for those still suffering delays, despite paying more and more for stamps.

“Things must improve swiftly for the people relying on this essential service. Ofcom can’t dish out a free pass for the company to underperform for another year - any investigation the regulator conducts into delivery failures must lead to real accountability, not just tick boxes.”

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Notes to editors: Links in original article.

Last year Ofcom announced changes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) held by Royal Mail. Now, the company only has to deliver 2nd class post on alternate weekdays, instead of six-days-a-week, Mon-Sat. This change was initially implemented at 35 pilot sites, and with a phased approach now in progress, full implementation is expected at all delivery offices by December.

Ofcom also lowered Royal Mail’s headline annual delivery targets as part of the changes to the USO, which means that as of April 1st 2026, Royal Mail is only required to deliver 90% of 1st class mail within one working day (instead of 93%), and 95% of 2nd class mail within three days (instead of 98.5%).

This Citizens Advice statement relates to the financial year 2025/26, which ended in March, and refers to Royal Mail not meeting its previous targets under the USO.

In its improvement plan published in April 2026, Royal Mail said it aims to meet its new, lower delivery targets in 12 months.

The last time Royal Mail met a 1st class annual delivery target was the financial year 2016/17. The last time Royal Mail met a 2nd class annual delivery target was the financial year 2019/20

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