Royal Mail has published its latest service results, which show improvement on the previous quarter, but still fall short of regulator Ofcom’s delivery targets.
The independently verified, Quality of Service results for the third quarter of the 2025–26 financial year cover the period from 29 September to 30 November 2025.
They show that 91.6% of second-class mail was delivered within three working days and 98.4% within five working days.
Meanwhile, 77.5% of first-class mail was delivered the next working day, with 96.6% delivered within three working days.
Royal Mail said all figures represent an improvement in performance compared with the previous quarter, despite the impact of Storm Claudia which caused flooding and major disruption during November. However, they fall short of Ofcom’s expectations.
December is excluded from the figures because Ofcom delivery targets do not apply over the Christmas period due to significantly higher seasonal volumes.
Calls for urgent reform from Royal Mail
Royal Mail has called for urgent implementation of the Universal Service reform, which will see changes to the Universal Service regulations to enable Royal Mail to deliver second class post every other weekday.
Ofcom is also making changes to Royal Mail’s delivery targets. The expectation that 93% of first-class mail to be delivered next day will be dropped to 90%, and for second-class mail, the current target for 98.5% to be delivered within three days will be reduced to 95%.
The new delivery model has been piloted at 35 of Royal Mail’s 1,200 delivery offices in 2025, showing “increased efficiency and improved service levels, including over Christmas when volumes doubled”. However, an agreement has not yet been reached on the rollout.
Royal Mail chief executive officer, Alistair Cochrane, said: “While these results show improvements for both First- and Second-Class mail, we recognise that our performance in letters is still not good enough. Unfortunately, under the current delivery model there is no viable way to significantly and sustainably improve quality of service for customers.”
“The answer is to urgently implement Universal Service reform, which is why we have now entered an intense period of discussions with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) to finally reach an agreement on these changes.”
Responding to the results, Anne Pardoe, head of policy at Citizens Advice, said: “Consumers are fed up with Royal Mail’s woeful performance, and these latest figures show they’re still paying for a postal service that fails to deliver on time.
“Things risk getting worse when cuts to delivery days come into full effect. With second-class delivery opportunities set to be halved, it’s concerning that people aren’t even getting their post on time now.
