Late Royal Mail post is ‘badly affecting our national life as a country’

The Labor chairman of a powerful House of Commons committee has warned that the crisis in letter deliveries is “affecting our national life as a country”.

Liam Byrne said MPs had been given evidence that people were “missing their duties” and were “missing medical appointments and court documents” as a result.

He said the issue was “badly affecting our national life”.

MPs on the committee were told frontline postal workers were sometimes told not to prioritize doctors’ letters and instead deliver them in a “pyramid pattern” behind special delivery items, tracked parcels and first-class letters.

Between September 29 and November 30, 91.6 percent of second-class mail was delivered within three business days, while 77.5 percent of first-class mail was delivered the next business day.

The committee said this meant millions of letters arrived late.

Martin Walsh, assistant general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, told MPs on the committee investigating the issue that there was a “recruitment crisis” among postal workers.

He said staff often walked for six hours and made deliveries in all weather conditions, sometimes working for just above minimum wage.

He added that 50 percent of new entrants leave after the first year.

Mr Byrne said: “Royal Mail is a national institution in crisis. If only three-quarters of First Class letters arrive on time, this is a failure that is costing families and small businesses across the country.

“The question for the new owners is simple: will they fix the service and fulfill their obligations in full, or will they allow standards to drop while the rules are rewritten after failure? The public were promised a service they could trust. Now it’s time to bring it back.”

Royal Mail said the figures marked an improvement on the previous quarter, but still fell short of targets set by Ofcom for 93 per cent of first-class mail to be delivered next day and 98.5 per cent of second-class mail to be delivered within three days.

Last month Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane said: “While these results show improvements for both first and second class mail, we recognize that our performance on letters is still not good enough.”

The company denies there is a recruitment crisis, saying they receive an average of 15 applications for each position and have such a long-serving and dedicated workforce that staff choose to stay for an average of 16 years.