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Ofcom will next week outline options for reforming Royal Mail’s service obligations that could pave the way for the abolition of Saturday postal deliveries amid warnings from the company’s boss that it may require a government subsidy to survive.

Sky News has learnt that the regulator will on Wednesday publish a consultation paper on the future of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) which industry sources believe is likely to include reforms such as modifying first- and second-class delivery targets; following European markets such as Germany and Italy in moving to alternate-day deliveries; providing a state subsidy to support the USO; and allowing Royal Mail to impose higher stamp prices.

Amending the current six-day USO – which obliges Royal Mail to deliver to every UK address six days a week for the price of a stamp – to a five-day structure that would then lead to the long-standing system of Saturday deliveries being scrapped is also understood to be among the options that will be presented in the Ofcom paper.

However, axeing the USO altogether, as Denmark has done recently, is unlikely to be a realistic option that would gain support from ministers.

Royal Mail has pleaded for urgent changes to its regulatory framework, arguing that a system built for 20 billion letter deliveries a year is now managing only seven billion, with the number set to decline to as few as four billion within five years, based on current trends.

This weekend, industry sources pointed out that the Ofcom document would not contain conclusions or firm recommendations, but would instead set out ideas for preserving the universal postal service in a sustainable form.

A 90-day call for input is expected to follow, with formal proposals expected to be set out later this year.

The regulator said last September that it intended to publish a paper focused on reforming the USO, saying that it had been unchanged since 2011.

“However, consumer demand for postal services has changed substantially, and it continues to do so,” it said.

Scrapping Saturday deliveries and moving to a five-day USO would require parliamentary approval.

Last year, the government rejected a request from Royal Mail to move to weekday-only deliveries, with estimates suggesting that this would save the company hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

“We currently have no plans to change the minimum requirements of the universal postal service as set out in the Postal Services Act 2011… including six-day letter deliveries,” Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister, said last June.

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Since its privatisation by the coalition government in 2013, the company has endured a series of industrial disputes and parted company with a succession of controversial chief executives.

Its recent delivery performance has been lambasted by MPs, and in November it was fined £5.6m by Ofcom for failing to meet first- and second-class delivery targets during the 2022-23 financial year.

Under the current USO, Royal Mail is expected to deliver 93% of first-class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of second-class mail within three working days of collection.

Ofcom said in November that the company had “breached its obligations by failing to meet its targets by a significant and unexplained margin”.

“This caused considerable harm to customers, and Royal Mail took insufficient steps to try and prevent this failure,” the watchdog added.

In a letter to MPs this week, Martin Seidenberg, chief executive of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), wrote: “Delivering the current Universal Service requirements – in a financially sustainable way – is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to achieve as the mix and number of parcels and letters changes.

“The bar set by the regulations is unrealistic given the market realities.”

He said there were several ways to address the challenge facing Royal Mail, “including significantly increasing prices, seeking a government subsidy, and/or reforming the Universal Service so that it is more reflective of the customer needs and market realities of today, not the needs of the past”.

“Whilst we welcome the forthcoming Ofcom review of the Universal Service, the inertia we have experienced means that we are now facing a far more serious situation than we would have been if action had been taken sooner,” Mr Seidenberg wrote.

“Every day that Ofcom and the Government further delay reform just creates more risk for the long-term sustainability of the Universal Service, and indeed Royal Mail itself. We must maximise every pound spent to transform our business for the future and deliver more for our customers – not continue to sustain a service standard that was designed in a pre-internet era and no longer reflects customer needs.”

On Thursday, the company reported that it had had its best Christmas trading period for four years, with a 10% rise in revenues during the final quarter of the year.

Ofcom and IDS both declined to comment on Saturday.

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‘I have nightmares of dead bodies’: Patients dying and undiscovered for hours in hospital corridors

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'I have nightmares of dead bodies': Patients dying and undiscovered for hours in hospital corridors

Patients are dying in corridors and going undiscovered for hours while the sick are left to soil themselves, nurses have said, revealing the scale of the corridor crisis inside the UK’s hospitals.

In a “harrowing” report built from the experiences of more than 5,000 NHS nursing staff, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found almost seven in 10 (66.81%) say they are delivering care in overcrowded or unsuitable places, including converted cupboards, corridors and even car parks, on a daily basis.

Demoralised staff are looking after as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, suction and other lifesaving equipment.

Women are miscarrying in corridors, while some nurses report being unable to carry out adequate CPR on patients having heart attacks.

Sara (not her real name) said she was on shift when a doctor told her there was a dying patient who had been waiting in the hospital’s corridor for six hours.

“It took a further two hours to get her into an adequate care space to make her clean and comfortable,” she told Sky News.

“That’s a human being, someone in the last hours of their life in the middle of a corridor with a detoxing patient vomiting and being abusive behind them and a very poorly patient in front of them, who was confused, screaming in pain. It was awful on the family, and it was awful on the patient.”

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Dead patients ‘not found for hours’

A nurse working in the southeast of England quit her job after witnessing an elderly lady in “animal-like conditions”.

She told the RCN: “A 90-year-old lady with dementia was scared, crying and urinating in the bed after asking several times for help to the toilet. Seeing that lady, frightened and subjected to animal-like conditions is what broke me.

“At the end of that shift, I handed in my notice with no job to go to. I will not work where this is a normal day-to-day occurrence.”

Another nurse in the South East said a patient died in a corridor and “wasn’t discovered for hours”.

Sara told Sky another woman needed resuscitating after the oxygen underneath her trolley ran out. Sara was one of just two nurses caring for more than 30 patients on that corridor.

“I have had nightmares – I have a nightmare that I walk out in the corridor and there are dead bodies in body bags on the trolleys,” she said, growing visibly emotional.

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No electricity to plug in computers

One nurse, who spoke to Sky News, said the conditions were “undignified” and “inhumane”.

“It’s not just corridors – we utilise chairs, cupboards, whatever space is available in the hospital to be repurposed into a care space, in the loosest sense of that term. These spaces are unsafe.”

Some spaces, she said, don’t even have basic electricity for nurses to plug in their computers.

The nurse, who spoke to Sky on the condition of anonymity, said she has experienced burnout multiple times over the state of her workplace.

“I have come to the conclusion this week I don’t think I can continue working in the NHS or as a nurse,” she said.

“It breaks my soul; I love what I do when I am able to do it in the right way. I like caring for people, I like making people better, I also like providing a dignified death.”

She added: “I want to look after the institution I was born into, but for the sake of my family and my mental health, I don’t know how much more I can give.”

With 32,000 nursing vacancies in England alone, data also shows around one in eight nurses leave the profession within five years of qualifying.

Nurses are being forced to provide care in hospital corridors and car parks. Pic: PA
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Nurses are being forced to provide care in hospital corridors and car parks. Pic: PA

Staff ‘not proud of the care they are giving’

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the testimony, which runs to over 400 pages, must mark a “moment in time”. In May 2024, the RCN declared a “national emergency” over corridor care in NHS services.

Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: “At the moment, [nursing staff] are not proud of the care they are giving.”

“We hear stories of escalation areas and temporary beds that have been open for two years,” she added. “That is no longer escalation, it’s understaffed and underfunded capacity that is pretty shocking care for patients. We have to get a grip on that.”

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She called the situation “a disgrace”, citing abuse of staff as another reason for people leaving the profession in droves.

Last week, a nurse was left with “life-changing injuries” after being stabbed by a man while at work.

“The NHS used to be the envy of the world and we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and say ‘what needs to change?’

“The biggest concern for us is that the public Is starting to lose a little faith in their care, and that has to stop. We absolutely have to sort this out.”

Commenting on the RCN’s report, Duncan Burton, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS had experienced one of the “toughest winters” in recent months, and the report “should never be considered the standard to which the NHS aspires”.

“Despite the challenges the NHS faces, we are seeing extraordinary efforts from staff who are doing everything they can to provide safe, compassionate care every day,” he added. “As a nurse, I know how distressing it can be when you are unable to provide the very best standards of care for patients.”

Have you experienced corridor care in an NHS hospital? Get in touch on NHSstories@sky.uk

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British woman dies in French Alps after crashing into another skier

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British woman dies in French Alps after crashing into another skier

A 62-year-old British woman has died in the French Alps after colliding with another skier, according to local reports.

The English woman was skiing on the Aiguille Rouge mountain of Savoie at around 10.30am on Tuesday when she hit a 35-year-old man who was stationary on the same track, local news outlet Le Dauphine reported.

It added that emergency services and rescue teams rushed to the scene but couldn’t resuscitate the woman, who died following the “traumatic shock”.

The man she collided with was also said to be a British national.

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Local reports said the pair were skiing on black slopes, a term used to describe the most challenging ski runs with particularly steep inclines.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told Sky News: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in France and are in touch with the local authorities.”

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Singer Linda Nolan dies ’embraced with love’ with siblings by her side

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Singer Linda Nolan dies 'embraced with love' with siblings by her side

Singer Linda Nolan, who rose to fame alongside her sisters in The Nolans, has died after several years of battling cancer.

The Irish star, 65, and her sisters Coleen, Maureen, Bernie, Denise and Anne, had a run of hits in the late 1970s and ’80s – including the disco classic I’m In The Mood For Dancing.

Paying tribute on The Nolans‘ X account, her sisters described her as “a pop icon and beacon of hope”, who “faced incurable cancer with courage, grace and determination, inspiring millions”.

Linda died peacefully in hospital this morning, “embraced with love and comfort” with her siblings by her side, her agent Dermot McNamara said in a statement.

“As a member of The Nolans, one of the most successful girl groups of all time, Linda achieved global success; becoming the first Irish act to sell over a million records worldwide, touring the world and selling over 30 million records,” he said.

“Her distinctive voice and magnetic stage presence brought joy to fans around the world, securing her place as an icon of British and Irish entertainment.”

As well as her TV and musical career, Linda helped to raise more than £20 million for numerous charities, including Breast Cancer Now, Irish Cancer Society, Samaritans and others.

“Her selflessness and tireless commitment to making a difference in the lives of others will forever be a cornerstone of her legacy,” Mr McNamara said.

Linda Nolan, Anne Nolan, Bernie Nolan, Coleen Nolan, and Maureen Nolan.
Pic PA
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Five of the Nolans in 1983 (L-R): Linda, Anne, Bernie, Coleen and Maureen. Pic: PA

Linda’s death came after she was admitted to hospital with pneumonia over the weekend. She began receiving end-of-life care after slipping into a coma on Tuesday.

Details of a celebration of the star’s “remarkable life” will be shared in due course.

Linda was born to Tommy and Maureen Nolan in Dublin on 23 February 1959, the sixth of eight children.

Her parents were both singers and keen to turn their young family into a musical troupe. Linda made her stage debut aged just four.

Those early years put the siblings on track for a career in show business which lasted for decades. As well as I’m In The Mood For Dancing, The Nolans had hits with Gotta Pull Myself Together, Attention To Me and Don’t Make Waves, and they also had their own TV specials.

At their height, they toured with Frank Sinatra and were reported to have outsold The Beatles in Japan.

Linda left the group in 1983, but later reformed with her sisters for several comeback performances. She also became known for musical theatre, most notably performing the role of Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers for three years from 2000.

The Nolan Sisters, (left to right) Bernadette, Denise, Linda (top), Anne and Maureen
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L-R: Bernie, Denise, Linda (top), Anne and Maureen Nolan pictured in 1975, before youngest sister Coleen joined the group

Four siblings struck by cancer

Linda was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and underwent a mastectomy two days before her 47th birthday.

After being given the all-clear in 2011, in 2017 she was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. Three years later, Linda and Anne together revealed they were being treated for cancer once again.

The sisters were diagnosed with different forms of the disease just days apart after they returned home from filming a series of their show, The Nolans Go Cruising. Linda had cancer of the liver, while Anne had breast cancer.

Linda Nolan seen attending the Bold x Pink Ribbon Foundation Party in 2024.
Pic: Shutterstock
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The star, pictured last year, had battled cancer for several years. Pic: Shutterstock

They went on to write Stronger Together, an account of their journey that included frank details of their treatments and the side effects.

But in 2023, Linda revealed the cancer had spread to her brain and she was beginning treatment as part of a new drug trial.

The Nolans lost their second-youngest sister, Bernie, to cancer in 2013, aged 52.

Loose Women star Coleen Nolan also revealed she was diagnosed with skin cancer last year, and said she was using a chemotherapy cream to remove it.

Linda’s husband of 26 years, Brian Hudson, died in 2007 after being diagnosed with skin cancer.

Anne Nolan is now cancer-free.

Tributes to star ‘who was always a joy’

TV star and singer Cheryl Baker and comedian Tommy Cannon are among those who have paid tribute.

“I’m heartbroken to hear about the passing of Linda Nolan,” Cannon wrote on X. “I had the pleasure of working with her on so many occasions, and she was always a joy – full of warmth and love. My thoughts and love are with the Nolan girls and the whole family.”

“The most incredible voice, the wickedest sense of humour, such a massive talent,” Baker wrote. “You’re with Brian now, Lin.”

Loose Women also sent its love to her family. Linda appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV chat show over the years, alongside her sister Coleen.

The Blackpool Grand Theatre described her as “a true Blackpool icon”.

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