The Postal Services Act 2011 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

. The Act enabled the

British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

to sell shares in

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

to private investors and includes the possible mutualisation of the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

. The Act allows private buyers to own up to 90% of Royal Mail, with Royal Mail staff being offered at least 10% of the shares of the company. It enabled the Post Office business to be separated from Royal Mail, to allow it to remain in government ownership or to be mutualised. It provided for the government to take over the assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme, which had a considerable deficit. It allowed for the transfer of regulatory responsibility from Postcomm to the communications regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

. The Act also wrote into law the requirement for Royal Mail to maintain a six day a week

universal service Universal service is an economic, legal and business term used mostly in regulated industries, referring to the practice of providing a baseline level of services to every resident of a country. An example of this concept is found in the US Telec ...

. During its passage through the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, the government added an amendment to include a guarantee that a silhouette or portrait of The Queen's head would remain on British postage stamps even if the Royal Mail were to be taken into foreign ownership. Following this stage it was considered by the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

, and the government added further amendments to safeguard the universal service. The Act was granted

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on 13 June 2011 and the majority of its provisions came into force on 1 October 2011.

Summary of main provisions

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

. # As part of the transition, there are a number of things which Ofcom either must do, or has the discretionary power to do. It also replaces the existing licensing regime with a general authorisation regime. The general authorisation regime came into effect on 1 October 2011. #* Ofcom may provisionally designate a universal service provider. #* Ofcom may approve a consumer redress scheme and require postal operators to be a member of that scheme. #* Ofcom must, in effect, transpose the existing licence conditions into initial conditions to apply under the general authorisation, including, as appropriate, consumer protection conditions. #* Ofcom may prepare a statement of the principles that it proposed to apply in fixing administrative charges; #* Ofcom must prepare and publish a statement of policy on information gathering for that year.

References

External links

Postal Services Bill
– official page on UK Parliament website * * {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2011 Privatisation in the United Kingdom Postal system of the United Kingdom Royal Mail