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Royal Mail has been fined £21m for missing its annual first- and second-class mail delivery targets, leading to millions of letters arriving late across the UK, the regulator Ofcom has said.

This represents the third-largest fine ever imposed by the UK communications watchdog.

Royal Mail delivered 77% of first class-mail and 92.5% of second-class mail on time during the 2024-25 financial year, Ofcom found. This was short of its respective 93% and 98.5% targets.

Ian Strawhorne, the director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp.

“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better. Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.”

In April this year the price of a first-class stamp rose again, up 5p to £1.70, while the cost of the second-class service rose by 2p to 87p.

HILLERØD, Denmark, October 15, 2025 – FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, a world-leading contract development and manufacturing organization for biologics, vaccines, and advanced therapies, today announced that 100 percent of its existing electricity needs at the Hillerød, Denmark, commercial-scale biologics manufacturing site are now covered by solar-power through Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

The solar-powered electricity consumption is facilitated through a previously announced 10-year PPA to offtake 40 GWh of renewable energy annually from a nearby solar park. The solar park announced new ownership by the energy group Andel in 2025.

The solar park is expected to have an annual production capacity of 110 GWh equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 28,000 Danish households. In addition to offsetting the energy consumption of the Hillerød site, the solar park will increase the amount of renewable energy in the Danish power grid.

The Hillerød site currently has 12 x 20,000 liters (L) mammalian cell culture bioreactors to support biopharma manufacturing. As part of a previously announced investment to create the largest end-to-end CDMO in Europe, the site will add 8 x 20,000 L bioreactors and two downstream processing streams — increasing to a total footprint of approximately 51,500 m². As part of the target to substitute fossil fuels with renewable energy in production, this further expansion will be fully electrified, as FUJIFILM Biotechnologies is installing electric steam boilers instead of natural gas fired boilers.

“I’m proud of the significant milestone in utilizing solar-powered electricity. This achievement reflects our strong commitment to sustainability and our Partners for the Planet plan,” said Christian Houborg, senior vice president, and Hillerød site head, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies. “As a leader in biopharma manufacturing, we aim to set high standards in sustainable operations within biopharma manufacturing.”

The PPA and other renewable energy initiatives at the Denmark site are part of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies’ Partners for the Planet plan to convert operations to renewable electricity and achieve a 50 percent reduction in (Scope 1 & 2) GHG emissions by Fiscal Year 2030 (compared to baseline in Fiscal Year 2019), and to focus on GHG emissions reduction throughout the supply chain.