8 hours ago
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Emer MoreauBusiness reporter
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Royal Mail is allegedly "choosing not to deliver letters" on time because of constraints at delivery offices, an MP has claimed.
Liam Byrne, the chair of the Commons Business and Trade Committee, has asked Royal Mail to "categorically" deny suggestions that it prioritises parcels over letters.
It comes after BBC News spoke to more than a dozen Royal Mail staff who say rounds are being missed on a daily basis and some first-class letters are sitting in delivery offices for weeks.
Royal Mail, which has previously denied prioritising packages over letters, has been approached for comment.
The company has admitted there are service delays in over 100 postcodes, but it said this was due to storms and higher rates of illness among staff.
He said there have "been suggestions that in some cases Royal Mail deliberately chooses not to deliver letters until a 'batch' of mail is ready to be delivered to that address".
This claim "if true, clearly risks customers missing important, time-sensitive information such as medical appointments", Byrne said.
He said the committee was aware Royal Mail has previously denied it prioritises parcels, but it wanted "categorical assurance".
Last year, Royal Mail was fined £21m by Ofcom for failing to meet its delivery targets. It was the third such fine in as many years.
At the time, Ofcom warned that these fines were "likely to continue" unless the company urgently delivers "a credible improvement plan".
Byrne asked Royal Mail in his Monday letter whether it had made financial provisions for future fines from Ofcom. He said the committee wanted answers by 2 March.
On the issue of letter delivery, a Royal Mail spokesperson has previously told the BBC: "We understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected, and we want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned.
"Where a delay affects a route, we work to resolve it as quickly as possible by putting in extra support and reviewing performance daily to restore deliveries as quickly as possible."
