Postal Services Act 2011

41 Notification condition

(1) OFCOM may impose a notification condition on—

(a) every person providing, or intending to provide, a service within the scope of the universal postal service, or

(b) every person providing, or intending to provide, a service within the scope of the universal postal service of a specified description.

(2) A notification condition is a condition requiring the person to give OFCOM—

(a) advance notice of the person’s intention to provide a letters business on a specified scale (whether or not the person is currently providing a letters business or any other postal service), and

(b) where the person is already providing a letters business on a specified scale, advance notice of the person’s intention to expand the business by a specified extent.

(3) A specified scale or extent may be determined by reference to any specified factor.

(4) The Secretary of State may at any time direct OFCOM to impose a notification condition.

(5) The direction may (but need not) specify some or all of the provision to be contained in the condition.

(6) Where a notification condition applies to a person at a time when the person is not providing a postal service—

(a) Schedule 7 (enforcement of regulatory conditions) is to have effect as if paragraph 7(2) and (3) were omitted and as if, for the purposes of paragraph 11, the person were providing a postal service, and

(b) Schedule 8 (information provisions) is to have effect as if the person were a person falling within paragraph 1(2) and as if, for the purposes of paragraph 8, the person were providing a postal service.

(7) In this section—

• “advance notice” means written notice given at least a specified period of time before the person intends to do as mentioned in subsection (2)(a) or (b),

• “a letters business” means a postal service which consists in the delivery of letters, and

• “specified” means specified in the notification condition.