BTC Chair Liam Byrne: “Royal Mail is a national institution in meltdown”
Royal Mail’s new owner Daniel Křetínský will appear in Parliament for the first time to answer questions on its performance as the UK’s universal postal operator.
Meeting details
Earlier in March the Committee said Royal Mail’s claim of delivering 92.1% of letters on time obscures the fact that only 74.9% of First Class mail was delivered on time so far this year, against a target of 93%.
That translates into approximately 126 million First Class letters arriving late over the year, 219 million total if you include nearly 10% of Second Class letters set to arrive late.
The 500 year-old Royal Mail’s buyout was cleared by shareholders in April last year, after new owners EP Group gave the Government legal undertakings that they would maintain the “one price goes anywhere” Universal Service Obligation.
In July Ofcom announced significant changes to the USO, with Second Class deliveries dropped down to every second day, Monday to Friday only. The rollout of this new model is currently the subject of a dispute between Royal Mail and the postal workers’ union. Royal Mail would get new “backstop” targets for mail it delivers up to two days late, and report against those too.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Royal Mail is a national institution in meltdown. When barely three quarters of First Class letters arrive on time, that’s a failure costing families and small businesses up and down the nation.
“The question for the new owners is simple: will they fix the service and meet their obligations in full - or allow standards to slide while the rules are rewritten around failure? The public were promised a service they could rely on. It’s time to restore it.”