Postcomm imposes penalty on Royal Mail for failing to protect mail

24 August 2006

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, today imposed a financial penalty of £9.62 million on Royal Mail for breaching its licence by failing to properly protect the mail in its care.

The penalty follows a review of Royal Mail's "mail integrity procedures", during which Postcomm found that some important features of Royal Mail's procedures were not being applied across the business.

The penalty was first proposed on 10 February 2006, when Postcomm published a consultation document proposing an amount of £11.38 million. After taking account of representations from Royal Mail and other respondents, Postcomm published its proposal to vary the penalty to £9.62 million on 16 June. 

Following consideration of further representations received, Postcomm has confirmed that figure and has today published the penalty notice.

Notes for editors

The Notice of Imposition of Financial Penalty to be paid by Royal Mail can be found on the Royal Mail - quality of service page.

On 10 February 2006, Postcomm published a consultation document proposing a financial penalty of £11.38 million on Royal Mail for its mail integrity failures. The full findings of that investigation were published in Februaruy in "Royal Mail's mail integrity procedures: report on review by Postcomm" (pdf, 737KB).

After taking account of representations by Royal Mail and other respondents, Postcomm decided to reduce the penalty to £9.62 million. This is the largest financial penalty Postcomm has imposed on Royal Mail and reflects the seriousness of the licence breach. That decision was published in a report: Royal Mail's mail integrity procedures: proposed variation of penalty (pdf, 238KB). Also issued was a penalty notice (pdf, 24KB). 

More information on Royal Mail quality of service.

Full list of documents relating to Royal mail quality of service.