Recent surveys by Post Watch suggest that 967,500 consignments go astray every week.

According to recent surveys by the consumer organisation Post Watch
967,500 consignments go astray every week, most of them letters but also a large
number of post cards and parcels. Post Watch’s chairman Mr Peter Carr said the service level of the British post was disastrous and the amount of missing letters and parcels ‘totally unacceptable’. Royal Mail distributes over 19 billion letters altogether, i.e. around 365 million per week. The amount of missing and lost consignments represents 0.27% of the total number.