New postal delivery safeguards should be considered for the Western Isles as well
as Orkney and Shetland Consumer Scotland has said.
Currently, first class deliveries in all other postcode areas in Scotland are protected
by quality-of-service targets monitored by postal regulator Ofcom, which require
Royal Mail to deliver 93% of first class mail within one working day.
However, there are no such safeguards for the islands because of the challenges of
delivering to remote locations, affecting around 60,000 consumers.
While Royal Mail has failed on all its delivery targets for first class post with
a UK average of 76.5% in 2024-2025, the three Scottish island groups without safeguards
have some of the slowest delivery rates in Scotland.
Royal Mail data shows that last year just 31% of first class post was delivered on
time in the Western Isles. Orkney had the same figure while Shetland was worse with
29% of first class post delivered on time.
These have also declined since the previous year’s performance data was published.
Ofcom is currently reviewing proposals to reform the universal postal service, including
delivery standards expected of Royal Mail.
Consumer Scotland Head of Post Grace Remmington said: “The lack of quality of service
targets for Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles means there are no safeguards
for consumers in these areas on the minimum levels of service that they can expect.
This limits options for Ofcom to enforce improved performance from Royal Mail.
“We recognise that for a range of operational reasons, including ferry timetabling,
that it is not reasonable or feasible for Royal Mail to be required to meet the same
targets for these areas as the national UK target.
“However, there is an important issue of consumer fairness and equality where Ofcom
provides a target for consumers in the rest of the UK, but does not provide any target
at all for consumers in the three exempt areas.
“The lack of any performance targets means island postal consumers are in a considerably
weaker and more vulnerable position than consumers in other parts of the UK.
"The current changes being considered in the postal sector provide a window of opportunity
to strengthen protection for island consumers. Everyone should have safeguards which
protect them from a poor postal service.”
Island communities ‘need new safeguards’ to improve postal services
9 June 2025