Citizens Advice responds to Royal Mail's quality of service results

Responding to Royal Mail's latest quality of service results for Q2 2024-2025 which show that Royal Mail have not met its delivery targets for First or Second class post between July and September 2024, Tom MacInnes, Director of Policy at Citizens Advice said:

“Half a decade has gone by, yet poor service and delays have become business as usual at Royal Mail. Quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year, consumers are being failed by our country’s postal service. 

“Quality of service targets under the Universal Service Obligation (USO) should be there to protect consumers. But our research shows the real-life consequences when they’re routinely missed, with people left waiting for urgent medical appointment letters, legal documents and benefit decisions. 

“Time and time again we have called on Ofcom to clamp down on Royal Mail’s poor performance. With the future of the USO at stake, we need Ofcom to step up and make sure any changes prioritise consumers’ needs, not just Royal Mail’s bottom line.”

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Notes to editors:

  1. Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.

  2. Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. 

  3. Citizens Advice helped 2.68 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2023-24. And we had 51.7 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.

  4. Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 19,000 trained volunteers, working at over 1,900 service outlets across England and Wales.

  5. Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers. 

  6. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.