Ofcom: Royal Mail must urgently put these reforms into practice

Ofcom has said Royal Mail must “urgently” improve its delivery performance and warned it expects to launch a full investigation into the company’s 2025/26 results.

Ofcom has released a statement on the Business and Trade Committee’s report on the regulation of postal services it says: “Royal Mail’s current performance is not acceptable. For several years, too many deliveries have been delayed, and this has had a serious impact on families, communities and businesses across all the nations and regions of the UK.

The real issue at hand now, is Royal Mail’s ability to get on and deliver against its improvement plan, which has been a long time coming. It is imperative that the company turns round its performance if it is to rebuild the trust of the public.

Ofcom’s focus has been, and remains, on ensuring the market delivers for UK consumers and businesses. We have acted decisively, using the full extent of our powers, to modernise Royal Mail’s regulatory obligations, enabling the company to respond to the continued decline in letter volumes. These changes were made to better reflect consumer needs, support the long-term sustainability of the service, and enable greater investment in delivery performance.

Since 28 July 2025, Royal Mail has had the flexibility and opportunity to implement these changes; however, progress has been constrained by the ongoing industrial dispute, which has yet to be formally resolved. It is not the role of the regulator to intervene in, mediate, or resolve industrial disputes between employers and trade unions, nor does Ofcom have the powers to do so.

To drive further change at Royal Mail, we demanded that the company publish a credible improvement plan, backed by investment from its owners. In response, Royal Mail committed to return performance back to the regulated targets by April 2027, and to invest £500 million over the next five years. Royal Mail must now urgently put these promised reforms into practice.

As the regulator, Ofcom’s role is to create the right incentives – as we have done – and apply appropriate consequences where performance falls short. We have set clear performance targets and taken action against Royal Mail where these have been missed – fining the company more than £37 million in recent years.

Royal Mail will shortly publish its full-year performance data for 2025/26. We anticipate opening a full investigation into last year’s results, including consideration of the role of parcel prioritisation.

We have, separately, written formally to the Committee following publication of its report.”