Royal Mail bosses to be called to Parliament over letter delivery failures
The BBC has learnt that Royal Mail staff will be called to Parliament to answer questions about the company's letter delivery service.
According to reports by the BBC, the Business and Trade Committee had two weeks to respond to reports that parcels were being prioritised over letters, resulting in delays to critical, time-sensitive mail.
Although the deadline technically comes to an end on Monday, the BBC believes that committee chair Liam Byrne has determined that the service is so bad that bosses must give answers to MPs.
According to Royal Mail, attending the committee would enable it to discuss the company's transformation efforts.
It comes after thousands of people contacted the BBC to express dissatisfaction with late deliveries, saying they had missed hospital appointments and that no official information, such as school certificates and bank statements, was received.
More than a dozen Royal Mail postal employees from various delivery companies said rounds were being missed on a daily basis, and parcels were being prioritised over letters as they were stretched beyond capacity.
The committee gave the company two weeks to respond to the allegations in a letter sent earlier this month, asking for promises to improve what it referred to as "chaos.
The committee is very concerned by continuing and increasing reports about Royal Mail's letter delivery service's key deficiencies,
Byrne said on Thursday.
Last April, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group acquired Royal Mail, with Kretinsky promising to "put employees and customers at the forefront of everything.
EP Group's takeover was approved on a court promise that it will keEP the Universal Service Obligation, which is the bedrock of the UK's postal service's postage system,
Byrne said. But first-class deliveries are way off target one year in.
Attending the Business and Trade Committee will give us the opportunity to discuss the changes we are making to improve Royal Mail and ensure we are financially viable long term,
a Royal Mail spokesperson said.
Royal Mail had said the vast majority
of mail was delivered as planned, but bad weather and staff sickness had caused some short-term disruption that it was trying to fix in reaction to the BBC's previous coverage.
