Ofcom has today opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s compliance with its regulatory obligations for 2024/25, following the company’s publication of its annual delivery performance results this afternoon.
Measuring performance
Under our rules, Royal Mail is required to meet specific delivery performance targets across the whole financial year, excluding the Christmas period.[1] Among other targets, Royal Mail must:
- deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection; and
- deliver 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days of collection.
Royal Mail has today acknowledged that it did not meet the above performance targets in 2024/25, as it:
- delivered 76.5% of first class mail within one working day of collection; and
- delivered 92.2% of second class mail within three working days of collection.
What we will investigate
We will investigate whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations in 2024/25.
If we determine that Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations, we will consider whether to impose a financial penalty.
In December 2024, Ofcom fined the company £10.5m for failing to meet its First and Second Class delivery targets in 2023/24; and in November 2023, we fined it £5.6m for failing to meet its targets in 2022/23.
End
Notes to editors:
1. Royal Mail is exempt from its targets during the ‘Christmas period’, which is defined as the period beginning on the first Monday in December and ending on the New Year public holiday in the following January.