Royal Mail fined £21m after a quarter of first-class post was late

Royal Mail has been fined £21 million after almost a quarter of first-class mail arrived late.

The penalty is the result of an investigation by communications watchdog Ofcom after Royal Mail missed both first- and second-class mail targets.

Royal Mail delivered just 77% of First Class mail and 92.5% of Second Class mail on time in the 2024/25 financial year; This was well below the targets of 93% and 98.5%.

Ian Strawhorne, Ofcom’s executive director, said: “Millions of important letters are arriving late and people are not getting what they paid for when they bought stamps.”