Committee publication · Correspondence · 15 April 2026

Letter from the Chief Executive of Ofcom relating to the Committee's letter of 27 March following the evidence session on Royal Mail, 7 April 2026

Summary

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom Chief Executive, responds to the Business and Trade Committee's follow-up questions on Royal Mail regulation following an evidence session on 24 March 2026. Ofcom confirms Royal Mail's performance remains unacceptable, defends its monitoring methodology against allegations of management misrepresentation, and outlines expectations for Royal Mail's improvement plan, including parent-company backing and transparent targets with interim milestones.

Key findings

First-Class delivery performance fell to 75.4% in Q1-Q3 2025/26 against 93% regulatory target; Second-Class at 90.3% against 98.5% target.
Ofcom has fined Royal Mail £37.1m cumulatively over three years (2023–2025) for regulatory breaches; contingency-driven parcel prioritisation is unacceptable and cannot excuse letter delivery failures.
Royal Mail declined consent to share absolute numbers of late letters with Committee on grounds of commercial confidentiality; Ofcom prohibited by legislation from disclosing confidential data.
Ofcom does not conduct unannounced inspections; instead relies on independently audited test-mail methodology (Spectos panel) with 95% confidence intervals, meeting British Standards EN 13850:2020 and EN 14508:2016.
2025/26 postal regulation budget is £3.2m (Ofcom total budget £226.8m); Ofcom expects Royal Mail improvement plan to include clear timeline to compliance, interim targets, and parent-company (EP Group) investment backing.
USO reform introduced July 2025 permits Second-Class delivery on alternate weekdays (not Saturdays) within three working days; retains 'one price goes anywhere' and six-day First-Class next-day service.

Tone

Factual

Topics

postal-servicesregulatory-enforcementconsumer-protectionuniversal-service-obligation

Key actors

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom, Royal Mail, Liam Byrne MP, Business and Trade Committee, EP Group, CWU, Spectos

Notable line

“… contingency-driven prioritisation, at any level, is not an acceptable reason for failing to provide an adequate level of service to consumers.”

Key Quotes

“My Board and I strongly agree with the Committee that the Royal Mail's current performance is not acceptable.”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Opening position on service quality

“We have found the company in breach of its regulatory obligations for three consecutive years, fining it £5.6m in November 2023, £10.5m in December 2024, and £21 million in October”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Enforcement record

“… contingency-driven prioritisation, at any level, is not an acceptable reason for failing to provide an adequate level of service to consumers.”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Response to whistleblower allegations on parcel prioritisation

“We do not undertake unannounced inspections of Royal Mail premises because we cannot assess delivery performance based on site inspections.”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Explaining Ofcom's monitoring methodology

“A credible plan must clearly set out how Royal Mail plans to improve quality of service and restore consumer confidence.”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Criteria for assessing Royal Mail's improvement plan

“… until we see significant and continuous improvement in quality-of-service performance, we are likely to continue to see financial penalties as necessary.”
— Dame Melanie Dawes · Enforcement approach if targets are not met

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗