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UNDER SCRUTINY: Darren Jones MP said Royal Mail had seen widespread breaches of policy and legal obligations (File image: PA)
Reporting by Levi Winchester
Royal Mail has failed to deliver letters six days a week and will face industry regulator Ofcom for not meeting statutory requirements, a committee of MPs has said.
The postal firm must deliver letters six days a week under its universal service obligation, but MPs from the business, energy and industrial strategy committee said it had prioritised parcels. The group also accused Simon Thompson, the chief executive of Royal Mail, of being ‘not wholly accurate’ when answering questions on worker tracking and discipline tech, the Mirror reports.
The firm last year reported losses of £1 million each day, with the committee acknowledging that Royal Mail faced ‘troubling times’. Ofcom said the firm’s performance was ‘clearly well short of where it should be’, saying it would take note of the MPs’ report.
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Darren Jones, the committee chairman, said: “I find it hard to believe that such widespread breaches of company policy and legal obligations are down to a national network of rogue workers conspiring against management at Royal Mail. We were inundated with evidence from postal workers challenging the accuracy of answers given by Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson.”
MPs said they ‘did not believe that such widespread errors could happen without direct or indirect approval of management’. The group added that the recent problems come ‘in the midst of a bitter industrial dispute’ but said Royal Mail has failed to meet some of its statutory requirements under the USO.
They said: “When we explored these issues with Royal Mail’s senior management, our concerns were not allayed; in fact, they grew. Some of the statements made by the chief executive officer during oral evidence provoked a huge response from postal workers, who contacted the committee directly, claiming that the committee had been misled.”
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A Royal Mail spokesperson said the firm had informed the committee it would review the ‘consistent application’ of its policies on letter and parcel delivery across the business. It will then share its findings with the committee and Ofcom, they said.
The spokesperson said: “We have asked the committee to share the material they have received and reiterate again our request for them to do that at the earliest opportunity so it can help inform that review.
“Royal Mail answered in detail the questions asked by the committee – in person and in correspondence – about the company’s performance, finances and service delivery. We reject the suggestion that Royal Mail may have misled the BEIS Select Committee in that process.”
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Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said the report ‘vindicates’ why the workforce lost confidence in Thompson and the senior leadership appointees. The mantra of ‘our business to run’ has seen a ‘vicious and unprecedented level of attacks’ on postal workers and the service they provide, the general secretary said.
Ward said: “The deliberate running down of the universal service obligation has actually worsened, not improved, since the Select Committee.”
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