Postal regulation: Transition to the new regulatory framework - Update statement

Update statement published 03|10|11

Summary

1.1 The Postal Services Act 2011 (the Act) received Royal Assent on 13 June 2011. It provides, amongst other things, for responsibility of regulation for postal services to move from the existing regulator, Postcomm, to Ofcom.

1.2 On 8 August 2011, Ofcom consulted on our proposals for the regulatory regime to apply from 1 October 2011. The consultation closed on 9 September 2011 and on 29 September 2011, Ofcom published a statement ^(-1-) setting out our decisions:

• provisionally to designate Royal Mail as a universal service provider;
  
• to re-approve the Postal Redress Service (POSTRS) and the consumer redress scheme criteria;
  
• for the regulatory conditions;
  
• for the charging principles; and
  
• for information gathering.

1.3 Annex 7 of that statement set out the form of decisions Ofcom intended to make on 1 October 2011 for the directions under s.116 of the Postal Services Act 2000 (Postcode Address File) and re-approving the Postal Redress Service (POSTRS). This was because the formal power to make these decisions did not arise until 1 October 2011.

1.4 As our formal powers have now come into force, we confirm that these directions and the formal notice have now been made. These can be found at Annex 1.

Footnotes:

  1.- The statement "Postal regulation: Transition to the new regulatory framework" can be found here: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/postal-regulation/statement/