New postal delivery safeguards should be considered for communities on the Scottish islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, 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 Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles 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 islands without safeguards have some of the slowest delivery rates in Scotland.
Royal Mail data shows that in 2024-2025 29% of first class post was delivered on time in Shetland, 31%% on Orkney and 31% in the Western Isles. Deliveries in Kirkwall on Orkney were faster with 54% being 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 has made a number of recommendations to the regulator including:
- Ofcom should ensure the needs of remote and rural consumers are adequately assessed when considering the future of postal services, including those in quality-of-service exempt island regions
- Ofcom should examine the options for introducing a new minimum quality of service target for the three island regions in Scotland currently exempt from the targets
- Ofcom should undertake analysis on Royal Mail’s postcode-level performance, including on second class post, to identify whether remote Scottish postcodes covered by targets also need extra safeguards to improve performance
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.”
Background
Briefing on changes to the Universal Service Obligation
Consumer Scotland is the statutory body for consumers in Scotland established by the Consumer Scotland Act 2020.