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. It 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. For example in 2024/25, Royal Mail:
delivered 76.5% of first class mail within one working day of collection – against a target of 93%
delivered 92.2% of second class mail within three working days of collection – against a target of 98.5%
completed 87.8% of daily delivery routes – against a target of 99.9%.
Royal Mail publishes quarterly performance reports showing how well it is doing against its targets. The figures above from the full year 2024/25 report.
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 hasa target for local performance – 91.5% 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 did not achieve this target in any of the postcode areas in 2024/25.
Performance in each postcode area is given in Royal Mail quarterly performance reports.
Responses
Royal Mail
Royal Mail has said that improving quality of service remains a top priority, and recognised the need to do more [pdf]:
We recognise that our quality of service is not where we want or need it to be, and we are sorry to those customers who have not received the service that they should have. We want to reassure our customers that we are actively modernising Royal Mail to provide a postal service that meets customers’ needs and we remain focused on improving. We must re-double our efforts to ensure we deliver a good and reliable service.
Ofcom
Ofcom, the regulator, has fined Royal Mail for its performance:
£21m for 2024/25
£10.5m for 2023/24
£5.6m for 2022/23
Ofcom has told Royal Mail that it must urgently publish, and deliver, a credible improvement plan. It has also changed requirements on Royal Mail, as set out below.
Government
The government has said that it expects Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to ensure the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient universal postal service.
Changes to requirements
In July 2025, Ofcom announced changes that would:
- allow 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 would still be delivered six days a week.
relax the main targets for when post has to be delivered – for first class mail, the target would change from 93% to 90% being delivered next-day, and for second class mail, the target would change from 98.5% to 95% delivered within three days.
add new backstop targets – for first class mail, 99% would have to be delivered within three days of posting, and for second class mail, 99% would have to be delivered within five days of posting.
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.
Links to other pages can be found at original URL.