Review of the Regulation of Royal Mail

Post Royal Mail Consultations and statements

Published: 25 May 2016

Consultation closes: 3 April 2017

Status: Closed (pending statement)

Statement published 1 Mar 2017

This statement concludes our review of the regulation of Royal Mail. The review was undertaken to ensure regulation remains appropriate and sufficient to secure the efficient and financially sustainable provision of the universal postal service.

Following the publication of a discussion document in July 2015, we issued a consultation in May 2016 which set out our proposals for the future regulatory framework for post. In preparing this statement, we have considered stakeholder responses to both of these documents.

This statement sets out our decision on the future regulatory framework for post, focussing on five key areas:

Maintaining a regulatory approach that recognises the structural decline in letters and increasingly competitive parcels sector, and extending the regulatory framework for a further five years;
Supporting competition and innovation in the parcels sector;
Tightening rules on access competition;
Focusing mail integrity regulation on appropriate areas and securing good consumer outcomes; and
Ensuring all regulatory conditions remain appropriate and fit-for-purpose.

This statement puts the new regulatory framework in place with immediate effect, aside from the new Universal Service Provider (USP) Access Condition. This will take effect from 1 April 2017 to allow Royal Mail to make any necessary changes to its commercial arrangements.

In addition, following feedback from consultation respondents, we have decided to amend our original proposal in relation to Postal Common Operational Procedures (PCOP) Code of Practice. We set out a new proposal in this document, and seek responses on this issue by 3 April 2017. To respond to our new proposal, please fill out the response form near the bottom of this page.

Note to stakeholders: Annex 7 (Annex 7 - Statutory Notification of Amendments to USP Access Condition) was first published on 1st March 2017. Please note that a new version of Annex 7 was published on 28 April 2017. This was in order to make a correction to the USP Access Condition as originally published on 1 March 2017 as it came to our attention that certain wording in USPA 6.4 from the previous version of the condition, which applied from 26 February 2014 until 1 March 2017, had been inadvertently omitted. A link to Annex 7 as corrected can be found below.

In our Annual Plan 2017/18, we said that we would review whether the regulation of Royal Mail’s quality of service remains appropriate in light of market developments. We have assessed the current quality of service framework and our view is that it would not be appropriate to pursue any changes at this time.

The quality of service standards are an important part of the regulatory framework for postal services and ensure that the reasonable needs and expectations of consumers are met. We therefore take Royal Mail’s compliance with its quality of service obligations very seriously. We will continue to closely monitor its performance and should Royal Mail fail to meet its regulatory obligations in future, it could face financial penalties.