Committee publication · Correspondence · 19 May 2026

Letter from Royal Mail relating to information requested in the letter of 30 April from the Committee, 13 May 2026

Summary

Royal Mail's CEO responds to the Business and Trade Committee's 30 April information requests on delivery performance, contingency guidance, and service metrics. Royal Mail provides substantial data on late deliveries (76.9–98.2% on-time by service class in 2024/25), contingency prioritisation categories, and methodology for the 10% daily coverage estimate, but redacts volume figures citing commercial sensitivity and competitive harm.

Key findings

First Class USO delivery performance declined from 76.9% (2024/25) to 74.9% (2025/26 YTD); Second Class improved from 92.2% to 90.2%; overall performance improved from 89.1% to 92.1%.
Royal Mail refuses to disclose absolute volumes and percentage breakdowns, citing competition from Down Stream Access operators, parcel competitors, and stamp resellers; Ofcom also withheld data on the same grounds.
Contingency prioritisation guidance applies to routes covering an average of 10% of delivery points daily, based on Delivery Office Daily Reporting system data; not all affected addresses have mail to deliver, making 10% likely an over-estimate.
Royal Mail has agreed new delivery model with CWU and Unite unions and published Quality of Service Improvement Plan backed by £500 million investment over five years (21 April 2026).
Contingency guidance prioritises next-day products (letters and parcels) over two-, three-, and five-day services to maintain product speed commitments; does not apply uniformly across all routes or delivery offices.

Tone

Procedural

Topics

postal-servicesbusiness-regulationcommercial-competitionservice-performance

Key actors

Alistair Cochrane, Liam Byrne MP, Royal Mail, CWU, Unite CMA, Ofcom, Competition and Markets Authority

Notable line

“The disclosure or publication of information on volumes being requested – above and beyond what we already publish – may assist competitors and other operators in their commercial conduct …”

Key Quotes

“I am pleased we have reached agreement with both our unions – the CWU and Unite CMA – on the rollout of a new delivery model which will deliver a better, more reliable service for our customers.”
— Alistair Cochrane · Opening statement on union negotiations and service improvement

“The volumes that the Committee is requesting us (and Ofcom) to provide are confidential and commercially sensitive.”
— Alistair Cochrane · Explaining refusal to disclose absolute volume figures

“Royal Mail's retail letters business competes directly with Down Stream Access (DSA) operators for senders of bulk mail services, such as banks, utility providers and public bodies.”
— Alistair Cochrane · Detailing competitive harm from volume disclosure

“The guidance is designed to ensure our postmen and women deliver mail in accordance with a product's speed, so next day products – which include 5 The categories do not correspond exactly to the products in the contingency guidance from August 2025 because the DSA Standard product …”
— Alistair Cochrane · Explaining contingency prioritisation methodology

“10% is likely to be an over-estimation because not all addresses will have mail to be delivered and a route reported as not fully covered could be limited to a road or part road.”
— Alistair Cochrane · Qualifying the 10% contingency application estimate

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗