£10m fine for Royal Mail as delivery targets are missed

Royal Mail has been fined more than £10m by the postal regulator for missing its delivery targets, with more than a quarter of first-class mail arriving late.

- Guardian staff

Ofcom, which fined the company £5.6m for the same failure of its regulatory obligations last November, said Royal Mail took "insufficient and ineffective steps" to improve its performance this year.

Under the regulator's rules, Royal Mail must deliver 93% of first-class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of second-class mail within three working days of collection.

Ofcom's investigation found that in the year to the end of March the company delivered only 74.7% of first-class mail on time, and 92.7% of second-class mail.

The company blamed its poor performance on its "challenging financial position", and delays to the ballot on a deal that followed last year's industrial action.

"We do not consider either of these to be justifiable reasons for Royal Mail's failure to provide the levels of service expected of it," said Ofcom.

"Ultimately, it is for the company to manage its financial position taking account of its obligations. Royal Mail took insufficient and ineffective steps to try and prevent this failure, which is likely to have impacted millions of customers who did not get the service they paid for."