House of Commons Library - Royal Mail performance

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https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... cbp-10383/

Royal Mail provides the universal postal service, essentially the ‘one price goes anywhere’ principle of postal services to all UK addresses.

Over the last few years, it has failed to meet some of its key targets, for example for deliveries.

Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the UK’s universal postal service provider. It is a private company, and is part of International Distribution Services plc.

Royal Mail was privatised and separated from the Post Office following the Postal Services Act 2011.

Obligations on Royal Mail
Royal Mail provides the universal postal service. It must deliver letters to every address in the UK, six days a week, at a uniform price, and parcels five days a week.

The legal basis for the universal postal service is the Postal Services Act 2011 and the universal postal service order. Detailed requirements are set out in conditions made by the postal regulator Ofcom.

Performance
Royal Mail’s performance is measured against quality of service targets which are set out by Ofcom.

Most of these targets are not being achieved, although performance has recently improved for some.

For example in April to June 2026, Royal Mail:

delivered 85.0% of first class mail within one working day of collection – against a target of 90% – this was up from 75.7% in 2025/26
delivered 91.4% of second class mail within three working days of collection – against a target of 95% – this was up from 90.2% in 2025/26
completed 70.0% of daily delivery routes – against a target of 99.9% – this was down from 77.4% in 2025/26.
Royal Mail publishes quarterly performance reports showing how well it is doing against its targets. The figures above are from the Q1 2026/27 and full year 2025/26 reports.

Ofcom also publishes annual monitoring reports for postal services, with more detailed analysis and information.

Performance in local areas
Alongside the national figures, Royal Mail also has a target for local performance – 87% of first class mail should be delivered the next working day in each of 118 postcode areas that cover most of the UK. (There is an exception for the HS, KW and ZE postcode areas as they are more remote.)

Royal Mail achieved this target in 42 of the 118 postcode areas in April to June 2026.

Performance in each postcode area is given in Royal Mail quarterly performance reports.

Changes to requirements
In July 2025, Ofcom announced changes that:

allowed Royal Mail to deliver second class letters on alternate weekdays (but still within three working days of collection), and not on Saturdays. First class letters are still to be delivered six days a week.
relaxed the main targets for when post has to be delivered – for first class mail, the target changed from 93% to 90% being delivered next-day, and for second class mail, the target changed from 98.5% to 95% delivered within three days.
added new backstop targets – for first class mail, 99% have to be delivered within three days, and for second class mail, 99% have to be delivered within five days.
The new targets apply from 2026/27.

This follows a ‘national debate’ on the future of the universal postal service, and consumer research work by Ofcom. In the consumer research it found that most postal users did not need six days a week delivery for the majority of letters, provided a next day delivery service continues to be available for some letters.

Responses
Royal Mail
Royal Mail has said that “We recognise our service hasn’t always been the standard our customers rightly expect and we’re determined to do better.”

In a March 2026 letter to the Business and Trade select committee [pdf], it said:

everyone at Royal Mail is working relentlessly to improve quality of service. But the complexity of the situation we face cannot be overlooked. Fixing quality of service, sustainably, requires structural change and the deployment of our new delivery model is critical.

In April 2026, Royal Mail published a Quality of Service Improvement Plan. This sets out actions to improve performance, such as targeted support for the worst performing delivery offices. It also sets out a timetable for rolling out the new delivery model, which will see second-class letters delivered on alternate weekdays in certain areas. Royal Mail say they anticipate meeting their regulated quality of service targets by April 2027.

Ofcom
Ofcom, the regulator, has fined Royal Mail for its performance:

£5.6m for 2022/23
£10.5m for 2023/24
£21m for 2024/25
It has opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s delivery performance in 2025/26.

In July 2025, it changed requirements on Royal Mail, as set out above.

Ofcom has said that it is “imperative that the company turns round its performance if it is to rebuild the trust of the public” and that “we will continue to hold [Royal Mail] to account for its unacceptable performance to date”. It says it will monitor progress closely and “continue to use the full range of our powers to secure a universal service that delivers the standard of quality consumers expect”.

Government
The government has said that it remains “absolutely committed to the universal postal service, which is an essential part of our economic infrastructure“. It said that “Royal Mail’s quality of service has not been good enough” and that it knows there is more to do:

The Government has discussed Royal Mail’s performance with the company and Ofcom, as the independent regulator, and they know there is more to do to improve stability and reliability for customers, but it is welcome that the most recently released quality of service figures, for Q1 26/27, show an improvement.

The government says it will “continue to press Royal Mail for improvements in service quality“.

Discussion and debate in Parliament
In May 2026, the Business and Trade committee published a report on The regulation of postal services. The committee concluded that “Ofcom needs to reset its approach to regulating of postal services”. In July 2026, the committee published a letter setting out Ofcom’s response, in which Ofcom pointed to action it has taken (described above) and Royal Mail is taking (described above).

See the links for:

Westminster Hall debate on Royal Mail: Performance on 18 March 2026
Other debates, statements and urgent questions, since the 2024 election
Questions that have been asked in Parliament, since the 2024 general election
Complaints about post
Royal Mail’s Personal complaints process page sets out its procedure for complaints.

This includes details of what to do if someone is not happy with the initial response to a complaint, and when the alternative dispute resolution service POSTRS can become involved.

Ofcom does not investigate individual complaints about postal services but does have a page on complaining about Royal Mail.

Information is also available from Citizens Advice, postaladvice.scot or the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

For information on problems with parcel deliveries by companies other than Royal Mail, see the Library briefing Problems with parcel deliveries.