Postcomm confirms £7.5 million penalty on Royal Mail
18 December 2003
Postcomm today confirmed a financial penalty of £7.5 million on Royal Mail for failings in its services to customers.
The penalty relates to two of Royal Mail’s services used by business customers: First Class Post Paid Impression (PPI) and First Class Response Services, where the company’s performance was around 6% below the agreed licensed targets for the year for both products.
Notes for editors
Royal Mail’s First Class PPI and First Class Response Services were subject to an enforcement order for three months up to 31 March 2003. The target for both services is delivery of 92.5% of post the next day. For February and March 2003 (the period for which the target was measured), First Class PPI recorded 86.3% and First Class Response Services 86.8%.
Under its licence, Royal Mail commits a breach if it fails to meet a service quality target and can be shown not to have used all reasonable endeavours to try to meet it. That was Postcomm’s finding in relation to these two products.
Postcomm received representations from Royal Mail and Postwatch, the consumer body, in response to the notice of proposed penalty issued on 30 September. After considering these representations, Postcomm’s commissioners decided to impose the penalty without change.
Since Postcomm gave notice of the penalty, a new compensation scheme has been put in place which will ensure that domestic and business customers will be compensated directly if their mail is delayed. Details of the compensation scheme can be found on the Postcomm website.
