Royal Mail has received a fine of more than £5 million due to missing delivery targets on both first and second-class deliveries by a "significant and unexplained margin".
A report by Ofcom shared that Royal Mail had only delivered 73.7% of first-class mail on time during the 2022/23 financial year.
This was at a time when it was hit by 18 days of strikes by frontline workers.
It added that just 90.7% of second-class mail was received on time.
Under Ofcom's rules, Royal Mail has to deliver 93% of first-class mail within one working day and 98.5% of second-class mail within three working days.
In the end, a fine of £5.6 million was dished out, Sky News reports.
🚨 We have fined Royal Mail £5.6m for failing to meet its 2022/23 delivery targets by a significant and unexplained margin.
— Ofcom (@Ofcom) November 13, 2023
Delays caused considerable harm to customers, and we found insufficient steps were taken to prevent this failure.
Read more ⬇️https://t.co/PdQJkvGqcL pic.twitter.com/wkBM0NEtDI
What did Ofcom say about Royal Mail delivery targets?
A statement from Ofcom on the delivery targets said that by it falling under expectation it had caused "considerable harm to customers".
They said: "Even after adjusting Royal Mail's performance for the impact of industrial action, extreme weather and the Stansted runway closure, its first and second class performance was still only 82% and 95.5% respectively.
"This means that Royal Mail breached its obligations by failing to meet its targets by a significant and unexplained margin. This caused considerable harm to customers, and Royal Mail took insufficient steps to try and prevent this failure."
The fine Royal Mail received was reduced by 30% to reflect the company's admission of liability and co-operation.
In response to the report by Ofcom a Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We are very disappointed with our quality of service performance in 2022-23 and acknowledge Ofcom's decision today.
"Last year was uniquely challenging for Royal Mail. Quality of service was materially impacted by the long-running industrial dispute which included 18 days of strike action.
"Quality of service is extremely important to us. We take our commitment to delivering a high level of service seriously and are taking action to introduce measures to restore quality of service to the level our customers expect."
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel