What our Universal Service licence means

Destination Hove

Royal Mail is the only postal service that has to publish its performance on UK 1st and 2nd class mail deliveries.

The Postal Services Act 2011 sets out minimum requirements and service standards for the Universal Service which Royal Mail, as the designated provider, must meet. 

For instance, as well as specifying detailed performance standards for First and Second Class deliveries, the Universal Service must offer an affordable service for insured items and registered post.

Full details of the minimum Universal Service requirements are in section 31 of the Postal Service Act 2011. 

Performance standards

We have two main performance targets for delivering mail:

  • Minimum of 93 per cent of First Class mail must arrive the next working day after posting
  • Minimum of 98.5 per cent of Second Class mail must arrive within three working days of posting.

As the sole provider of the Universal Service, we are the only postal service obliged to publish every quarter how well our performance lives up to these delivery targets. This information is independently checked in a separate auditing process and also independently verified by our regulator, Ofcom. 

Universal Service minimum requirements

1. Delivery of letters or postal packets (including those posted outside UK):

  • At least one delivery of letters every Monday to Saturday to every address in the UK.
  • At least one delivery of other postal packets every Monday to Friday to every address in the UK.

2. Collection of letters or postal packets (including those for onward transmission outside the UK):

  • At least one collection of letters every Monday to Saturday from every access point in the UKused for receiving letters and postal packets for onward transmission
  • At least one collection of other postal packets every Monday to Friday from every access point in the UK used for that purpose.

3. Service at affordable prices at a uniform public tariff:

  • Postal services – (including conveying, receiving, collecting, sorting and delivering) at an affordable, uniform public tariff across the UK; and to places outside the UK.

4. A registered items service at a uniform UK-wide, affordable public tariff.

5. An insured items service at a uniform UK-wide affordable public tariff.

6. A free-of-charge postal service to blind or partially sighted people.

7. Free carriage of legislative petitions and addresses.