UNITED KINGDOM — Ofcom has launched an investigation into Royal Mail for missing its annual delivery targets and potentially prioritizing parcel delivery over letters. The regulator will examine whether the postal service breached its regulatory obligations by failing to meet mandated performance standards for first- and second-class mail.
In the year ending March, 24.3% of Royal Mail’s first-class mail failed to arrive on time, exceeding the previous year’s shortfall of 23.5%. Ofcom mandates that 93% of first-class mail must be delivered within one working day of collection, excluding Christmas. Royal Mail also delivered only 90.2% of second-class mail within the required three-working-day window, falling short of Ofcom’s 98.5% target.
Royal Mail has not met Ofcom’s first-class delivery target since 2017 or its second-class target since 2020. The company was fined £21 million by Ofcom in October for missing annual delivery targets and has accumulated £37 million in fines since 2023 for routine failures to meet regulatory standards.
Ofcom said its investigation will specifically assess whether Royal Mail is prioritizing parcel delivery over letters—a claim previously raised by whistleblowers and unions, which the company denies. “In deciding whether Royal Mail breached its regulatory obligations, we will consider all relevant factors,” Ofcom said. “This will include the question of parcel prioritisation, as well as identifying whether there were any exceptional events beyond the company’s control that may have affected its performance. Where we determine a breach of Royal Mail’s obligations during our investigation, we will consider whether to impose a financial penalty.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said the company would “engage fully with Ofcom,” that improving service quality was “a top priority,” and that it is implementing a £500 million, five-year investment program. “These reforms are designed to deliver long-term quality improvements for customers as we modernise the postal service and deploy the new delivery model, enabled by the changes to the universal service regulations that Ofcom introduced in July 2025,” the spokesperson added.
Royal Mail has also raised postage prices, increasing first-class stamps by 10p to £1.80 and second-class stamps by 4p to 91p in April. The company attributed the hikes to the “continued rise in the cost of delivery for every letter.” Letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion annually a decade ago to 6.7 billion currently, with projections suggesting a further decline to 4 billion within four years, even as the number of addresses served has grown by 4 million over the same period.