Post Office Act 1969

20 Rights and liabilities as to conveyance of mails

(1) On the appointed day—

(a) the right which, by virtue of subsection (1) of section 29 of the [1953 c. 36.] Post Office Act 1953 (hereafter in this section referred to as the " principal Act"), the Postmaster General enjoys immediately before that day to require a person by whom a ship is owned or worked to carry parcels in the ship and the countervailing obligation which, by virtue of subsection (2) of that section, is, immediately before that day, incumbent on him to pay remuneration for services rendered under that section shall become those of the Post Office;

(b) the rights which, by virtue of sections 33, 34, 36(1) and 42 of the principal Act (which contain provisions enabling him to compel railway undertakers to undertake the conveyance of mail-bags by train and by ships which are owned or worked by them or in the case of which they are parties to arrangements for the use, maintenance or working thereof) he enjoys immediately before that day and the countervailing obligations with respect to payment of remuneration for services performed which, immediately before that day, are, by virtue of sections 35 and 36(2) of the principal Act, incumbent on him shall become those of the Post Office ;

(c) the right which, by virtue of section 44(1)(b) and (c) of the principal Act, he enjoys immediately before that day to require the British Railways Board and certain other bodies which provide transport services to perform (subject to the restrictions imposed by section 45 of the principal Act) reasonable services with regard to the conveyance of mail-bags and the countervailing obligation which, by virtue of section 44(2) of the principal Act, is, immediately before that day, incumbent on him to pay remuneration for services performed shall become those of the Post Office; and

(d) the obligation to him which, by virtue of subsection (1) of section 38 of the principal Act, is, immediately before that day, incumbent on railway undertakers to perform services with respect to the conveyance of mail-bags and the other matters mentioned in that subsection and the right which, by virtue of subsection (2) of that section, they enjoy, immediately before that day, to receive from him remuneration for services performed shall respectively become an obligation to the Post Office and a right against it.

(2) Accordingly, as from the appointed day.—

(a) sections 29, 33 to 36, 38, 44 and 45 of the principal Act shall have effect as if, for references to the Postmaster General, there were substituted references to the Post Office ; and

(b) sections 39, 40 and 41 of that Act (which respectively prohibit railway undertakers from making byelaws, &c, which militate against the provisions of that Act relating to the conveyance of mails by railway, provide for the manner in which notices may be served under that Act on railway undertakers and penalize certain refusals and neglects by such undertakers in the matter of the conveyance of mails by railway) shall have similar effect.