Royal Mail Quality of Service Audits

Ofcom is the communications regulator in the UK. We regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate.

Ofcom operates under a number of Acts of Parliament. In accordance with Ofcom’s functions under the Postal Services Act 2011, Ofcom has imposed a Designated Universal Service Provider Condition (DUSP Condition) on Royal Mail Group Limited (Royal Mail).

Among other things, this condition imposes certain Quality of Service standards on Royal Mail in connection with its provision of the Universal Postal Service.

These standards include, for example, delivering:

• 93% of first class letters within one working day;
• 98.5% of second class letters within three working days;
• 99% of special delivery letters by 1pm one working day after collection; and
• Within certain postcode areas, 91.5% of first class letters within one working day

Ofcom has a requirement for the monitoring of Royal Mail’s Quality of Service performance to be audited in line with the specifications of Standards EN 13850:2020 (E) and EN 14508:2016 (E).

The audit would involve critically assessing Royal Mail’s testing methodology for monitoring its performance in respect of the measurement of the transit time of end-to-end services for single piece priority (First Class stamped and metered) mail and non-priority (Second Class stamped and metered) mail, in line with the Standards.