Maria Caulfield, Member of Parliament for Lewes, has welcomed the news that Ofcom has fined Royal Mail £5.6m for failing to meet its First and Second Class delivery targets in the 2022/23 financial year.
Under Ofcom’s rules, each year Royal Mail is required to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days, and complete 99.9% of delivery routes for each day on which a delivery is required.
In 2022/23, Royal Mail’s reported performance results showed that it had only delivered 73.7% of First Class mail on time and 90.7% of Second Class mail on time, and completed 89.35% of delivery routes for each day on which a delivery was required.
Maria Caulfield has received hundreds of messages from local residents who have expressed their frustration, with some seeing their deliveries go down to once per week.
Maria visited one of our local sorting offices spoke to local postmen and women who said they are often having to take on two or three rounds at a time and are just not able to get around these in one day.
Maria then raised the issue with Royal Mail managers and challenged them on their lack of staff recruitment and the pressures on existing staff.
Maria Caulfield MP said:
“I welcome the action taken by Ofcom to fine Royal Mail over £5 million, they are clearly not meeting the standards that residents deserve for timely deliveries. I hope that Royal Mail will now take action to improve the service.”
