Royal Mail is taking on roughly 22,000 temporary staff to prepare for the peak Christmas period.

The postal operator noted that these seasonal positions frequently result in permanent roles, offering pathways to long-term careers.

Mail sorting accounts for 12,500 jobs in England, 1,243 in Scotland, 485 in Northern Ireland and 355 in Wales.

An additional 5,000 delivery and collection vacancies are open nationwide, alongside 2,100 temporary posts for truck drivers.

Royal Mail’s chief operating officer, Jamie Stephenson, said: “Christmas is the busiest and most important time of the year for our customers, and we’re working hard across every part of our operation to deliver for them.

“While many people start thinking about Christmas as the festive season approaches, we’ve been planning for it since January.

“From recruiting thousands of seasonal colleagues to strengthening capacity across our network, we’re making significant investments to help ensure every card, gift and parcel arrives in time for Christmas.”

Royal Mail will be adding to its fleet of 6,000 vehicles with an additional 7,500 hire vans to support this year’s seasonal campaign.

The news comes as postal regulator Ofcom investigates Royal Mail following its persistent failure to meet crucial delivery targets over the past year.

The watchdog's benchmarks stipulate that 90 per cent of first-class mail should arrive the following day, and 95 per cent of second-class post within three working days.

Royal Mail recently confirmed it missed these targets for another consecutive year.

Its latest quality of service report showed only 75.7 per cent of first-class letters reached their destination the next working day over the 12 months to March (down from 76.3 per cent the prior year).

For second-class deliveries, 90.2 per cent were completed within three days (a reduction from 92.2 per cent previously).

This investigation comes despite Ofcom 'modernising' Royal Mail's obligations last July. These adjustments, made to reflect declining letter volumes, included allowing second-class letters to be delivered on alternate weekdays, alongside other changes to delivery targets.

Royal Mail expected to complete its rollout of the new delivery model by Christmas, Ofcom said.