Royal Mail publishes its Quality of Service results for the first quarter (Q1) of the 2026-27 financial year, covering 30 March to 28 June 2026.
Q1 performance
| Service | Measure | Q1 2026 | Q1 2025 | Change |
| First Class | Next working day delivery | 85.0% | 76.0% | +9.0 pp |
| Reliability – within 3 working days | 98.1% | 97.0% | +1.1 pp | |
| Second Class | Within 3 working days | 91.4% | 89.3% | +2.1 pp |
| Reliability – within 5 working days | 98.4% | 98.2% | +0.2 pp |
Progress against the Improvement Plan
Today’s results build on the progress made towards the end of the last financial year, when First Class performance reached 81.1% and Second Class reached 90.2%.
The results also put First Class performance ahead of the Q1 range of 77-79% set out in Royal Mail’s Improvement Plan published in April, while Second Class performance is within its Q1 range of 90.5-91.5%.
Across all letter products, 93% of letters are currently delivered on time and more than 99% within a week.
The Improvement Plan is supported by the rollout of a new delivery model designed to improve reliability and quality of service.
Under the new model, First Class letters continue to be delivered six days a week, while Second Class and other non-First Class letters are delivered every other weekday.
Royal Mail Chief Operating Officer Jamie Stephenson said: “These results are encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact. First Class performance is well ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of our Improvement Plan, while Second Class is tracking in line with the plan.
“We know there is more to do. We are investing £500 million over five years and making significant changes across our network, including rolling out the new delivery model across all 1,200 of our delivery offices. None of this progress would be possible without the continued hard work of our frontline colleagues, including through the recent extreme heat.”
(Royal Mail)
