Royal Mail has been slapped with another substantial penalty for missing its delivery performance standards.
Watchdog Ofcom has imposed a £21m fine on Britain's postal operator after just 77 per cent of first class and 92.5 per cent of second class post arrived punctually, falling significantly below the required 93 per cent and 98.5 per cent benchmarks, as reported by .
The sanction, ranking as the third-largest ever levied by the regulator, marks the third consecutive year Royal Mail has faced financial penalties, following £5.6m in November 2023 and £10.5m in December 2024.
Ofcom determined that Royal Mail had violated its duties by delivering substandard service without adequate justification. The company adopted "insufficient and ineffective steps" to prevent these shortcomings, affecting millions of consumers who failed to receive the service they purchased.
"Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren't getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp. These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better," said Ofcom director of enforcement, Ian Strawhorne.
"Royal Mail must rebuild consumers' confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises. We've told the company to publicly set out how it's going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon. ".
"If this doesn't happen, fines are likely to continue."
'Admissions of liability'
The hefty fine included a 30 per cent reduction from the £30m that Ofwat would have otherwise levied, acknowledging Royal Mail's admission of liability and agreement to settle the case.
Royal Mail also missed its delivery targets in 2020-2022, but Ofcom refrained from imposing any penalties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the company's operations, which was beyond its control.
Ofcom has directed Royal Mail to "urgently" devise and execute a credible plan that "delivers significant and continuous improvement".
The regulator has already eased the delivery targets it expects Royal Mail to achieve under reforms to the universal service announced in July.
A spokesperson for Royal Mail stated: "We acknowledge the decision made by Ofcom today and we will continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service.
"A key area of focus and investment has been the detailed work ahead of full implementation of our new delivery model, enabled by Ofcom's changes to the Universal Service. This is critical to enable us to drive a step change in quality of service.
"We have also implemented important changes across our network including recruiting, retaining and training our people, and providing additional support to delivery offices."
