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Thousands face Christmas delivery delays as Royal Mail confirms major disruptions due to staffing issues
Royal Mail has issued an urgent Christmas warning as postal operations across 58 postcodes throughout the UK face major disruption in the run-up to the festive season.
The mail giant has revealed that multiple local sorting offices across the nation are struggling to deliver normal service standards due to “high levels of sick absence, resourcing issues and other local factors”.
While Royal Mail remains committed to its six-day weekly delivery promise, it has admitted that in certain troubled areas, this benchmark will “temporarily not be possible”.
Households in the affected zones have been warned to brace for possible delays to both letters and packages during one of the busiest postal periods of the year.
The company explained that delivery rounds will be rotated to “minimise delay”, while extra staff have been brought in to help the worst-hit offices cope with surging Christmas mail volumes, reports Bristol Live.
An extensive list published on Royal Mail’s website today reveals dozens of affected postcodes, stretching from London and the South East right through to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Areas including Brixton, Bristol East, Grimsby, Inverclyde, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Plymouth, St Helens, Wigan and Yate are among those experiencing service disruptions. Several distribution centres in Scotland, as well as various facilities across Northern Ireland, including Belfast West, Lisburn and Londonderry, have also been listed on the disruption register.
Royal Mail has apologised for the inconvenience, stating: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We will regularly update customers on the offices most impacted.”
This news comes after a challenging few months for the postal service, which has been dealing with increased regulatory pressure and a surge in seasonal demand.
In October, it was disclosed that Royal Mail had been slapped with a £21 million fine for failing to meet its annual first and second class mail delivery targets. This resulted in millions of letters being delivered late across the UK, according to regulator Ofcom.
This penalty is the third-largest ever imposed by the communications watchdog.
Impacted postcodes
- Altens DO (AB10, AB11, AB12, AB35)
- Ashington DO (NE22, NE62, NE63, NE64)
- Barry DO (CF62, CF63)
- Batley DO (WF5, WF15, WF16, WF17)
- Belfast West DO (BT10, BT11, BT12, BT17)
- Bingham DO (NG12, NG13)
- Bristol East DO (BS5)
- Brixton DO (SW2)
- Calderway DO (WF12, WF13, WF14)
- Canvey Island DO (SS8)
- Clevedon DO (BS21, BS49)
- Congleton DO (CW4, CW12)
- Dundee East DO (DD4, DD5, DD7)
- Dunstable DO (LU5, LU6)
- Dyce DO (AB21)
- Eastwood DO (NG16)
- Ebbw Vale DO (NP23)
- Erskine DO (PA7, PA8)
- Glenrothes DO (KY6, KY7)
- Gloucester North DO (GL3, GL4)
- Gravesend Rural DO (DA12, DA13)
- Grimsby DO (DN31-DN37)
- Hyde DO (SK13, SK14, SK16)
- Inverclyde DO (PA14-PA19)
- Inverurie DO (AB51, AB52)
- Johnstone DO (PA5, PA6, PA9, PA10, PA12)
- Kettering DO (NN14-NN16)
- Kidsgrove DO (ST7)
- Kingswood DO (BS15 and BS30)
- Lichfield DO (WS7, WS13, WS14)
- Lisburn DO (BT26, BT27, BT28)
- Lochgelly DO (KY5)
- Londonderry DO (BT47-BT48)
- Mid Rhondda Ganol DO (CF39-CF40)
- Northfield DO (B31)
- North Tyneside DO (NE25-NE30)
- Northwich DO (CW8-CW9)
- Nottingham South DO (NG2, NG12)
- Ongar DO (CM5)
- Plympton DO (PL7)
- Pontefract DO (WF7, WF8, WF9, WF11)
- Prescot DO (L34, L35)
- Radstock DO (BA3)
- Renfrew DO (PA4)
- Sleaford DO (NG34)
- St Helens DO (WA9, WA10, WA11)
- Thornbury DO (BS35)
- Tipton DO (DY4)
- Uddingston DO (G71)
- Warrington DO (WA1, WA2, WA4, WA5, WA55)
- Wellington DO (TA21)
- Westhill DO (AB13, AB14, AB32)
- Whitehaven DO (CA18-CA20, CA26, CA28)
- Whitwood DO (WF6, WF10)
- Wigan DO (WN1-WN6)
- Wolverhampton DO (WV1, WV2, WV3, WV4, WV5, WV10, WV13 and WV14)
- Yate DO (BS37)
During the 2024-25 financial year, Royal Mail managed to deliver only 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class mail on time, Ofcom discovered. These figures fell short of their respective targets of 93% and 98.5%.
This marks the third consecutive year that the British delivery behemoth has been fined for not fulfilling its service requirements. Ian Strawhorne, director of enforcement at Ofcom, commented: “Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp.
“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better. Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.
“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon,” Mr Strawhorne added. “If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”
The regulator revealed it had taken into account exceptional weather conditions during its probe, including storms and flooding, but discovered Royal Mail had still failed to meet delivery standards between April 2024 and March 2025.
The £21 million fine was slashed from £30 million after Royal Mail accepted responsibility and agreed to settle the matter.
The penalty reflected the detriment experienced by customers due to the substandard service and the fact that targets had been missed for three consecutive years.
It also factored in Royal Mail’s financial circumstances, given the company had recently returned to annual profitability.
A Royal Mail spokesperson responded: “We acknowledge the decision made by Ofcom today and we will continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service. A key area of focus and investment has been the detailed work ahead of full implementation of our new delivery model, enabled by Ofcom’s changes to the universal service.
“This is critical to enable us to drive a step change in quality of service. We have also implemented important changes across our network including recruiting, retaining and training our people, and providing additional support to delivery offices.”
The firm stated that pilot schemes testing the universal service modifications were “working, with improvements in deliveries” across certain areas of the UK.
Ofcom has approved Royal Mail’s proposal to eliminate second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and switch the service to alternate weekdays, with the alterations set to be introduced over the coming months.
However, Royal Mail remains bound by its universal service obligation to maintain Monday to Saturday deliveries for first-class post and uphold the three working day delivery target for second-class letters.
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