Christmas Adjournment

Dave Robertson Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)]

People across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages are looking forward to a very merry Christmas. In the run-up to the big day, many will have enjoyed opening Christmas cards from friends and loved ones—well, they would have done if the cards had arrived. For far too many people across my area, the post simply does not arrive.

The Christmas period is a busy time for letters, so let me be clear: this is not a seasonal issue in Lichfield and Burntwood. Residents have been telling me about serious problems with deliveries from Royal Mail for months. Constituents have gone weeks without mail before receiving a huge bundle of delayed letters all at once. Households tell me that they regularly receive mail only once a week or fortnight—and, in some cases, only once every three weeks. Constituents have missed jury service or court hearings because summonses have not come; they have missed hospital and GP appointments because the invitation and reminder arrived three days after the appointment; they have been fined for late payment of credit card bills that they had never received; or they are waiting for vital letters from their banks with debit cards or pin details.

Royal Mail has clear delivery targets: 93% of first-class letters delivered by the next working day, 98.5% of second-class letters delivered in three working days and 99% of delivery routes to be completed six days a week. In my area, those targets are a joke—we are nowhere near that. I have been writing to Royal Mail about these issues for months and working closely with the Communication Workers Union. I want to take this opportunity to make it clear that none of this is the fault of hard-working posties. They are doing a brilliant job and doing as much as they can, and I want to thank them this Christmas. No, this is on Royal Mail.

Royal Mail has been consistently slow in dealing with my requests and, when it has got back to me, it has batted away my concerns and claimed “There’s nothing to see here.” It has finally admitted that there is a problem, but I am eager to know what action it is going to take in the new year to fix it in the long term for the people of Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages.

In my remaining 10 seconds, I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, all the House staff, and every right hon. and hon. Member for their support this year. I wish everybody a very merry Christmas.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.