Royal Mail: Scrapping Saturday post among Ofcom options for reform

Royal Mail could be allowed to scrap Saturday post deliveries, as part of an Ofcom review into how the postal service may need updating.

The regulator is set to publish a document next week outlining options on how Royal Mail can "evolve to more closely meet consumer needs".

However, Ofcom - which regulates the postal industry - says it is not commenting on what the options will be.

Royal Mail posted a £319m loss for the first half of this financial year.

The business has been calling for urgent reform since 2020 and previously said it would like to go from delivering six days a week to five, from Monday to Friday only.

A spokesperson for Ofcom confirmed that it will publish evidence on "how the universal postal service might need to evolve to more closely meet consumer needs".

"It would ultimately be for the UK government and Parliament to determine whether any changes are needed to the minimum requirements of the universal service," they added.

Ofcom announced in September that it would look at evidence on how the universal service, which states letters must be delivered Monday to Saturday, may need to change to reflect how people now use the service.

On Thursday, Martin Seidenberg, chief executive of Royal Mail's owners, International Distribution Services plc, said in its trading statement that while it was doing all it could to transform, "it is simply not sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are now only delivering seven billion."

The legal basis for the universal service is the Postal Services Act 2011. A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said there were "no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements" - but it would "carefully consider any advice that Ofcom puts forward".