Search Legislation

Postal Services Act 2011

  • Explanatory Notes Table of contents

Please note:

All reference to 'Parts' and 'sections' are from the Postal Services Act 2011. For other versions of these Explanatory Notes, see More Resources.

  1. Introduction

  2. Background

  3. Purpose of the Act

  4. Structure of the Act

  5. Territorial Extent

  6. Commentary on Sections

    1. Part 1: Restructuring of Royal Mail Group

      1. Summary and Background

      2. Removal of existing statutory restrictions on ownership

        1. Section 1: Removal of restrictions on ownership of Royal Mail Holdings plc etc

      3. Ownership of the Royal Mail

        1. Section 2: Report on decision to dispose of shares in a Royal Mail company etc

        2. Section 3:  Establishment of employee share scheme

      4. Ownership of the Post Office

        1. Section 4: Restrictions on issue and transfer of shares and share rights in a Post Office company etc

        2. Section 5: Report on a transfer of an interest in a Post Office company to a relevant mutual

        3. Section 6: Meaning of “Post Office company”

        4. Section 7: Meaning of “relevant mutual”

      5. Transfer of property etc

        1. Section 8: Transfer schemes

        2. Section 9: Transfer of employees otherwise than under transfer scheme

        3. Section 10: Taxation provisions relating to re-structuring

      6. Supplementary provisions

        1. Section 11: Annual report on post office network

        2. Section 12: Annual report on postal museum collection and archive

        3. Section 13: Directions

      7. Interpretation

        1. Section 14: Ownership of companies

    2. Part 2: Royal Mail Pension Plan

      1. Summary and background

      2. Introduction

        1. Section 16: Introduction

      3. Powers exercisable

        1. Section 17: Transfer of qualifying accrued rights to new public scheme

        2. Section 18: Division of the Royal Mail Pension Plan (“RMPP into different sections

        3. Section 19: Amendments of the Royal Mail Pension Plan (“RMPP

        4. Section 20: Protection against adverse treatment

        5. Section 21: Transfer of assets of the Royal Mail Pension Plan (“RMPP

        6. Section 22: Restriction on power to transfer assets

      4. Supplementary provisions

        1. Section 23: Taxation

        2. Section 24: Information

        3. Section 25: Orders and regulations

        4. Section 26: Interpretation of Part 2

    3. Part 3: Regulation of postal services

      1. Summary and Background

      2. Postal services

        1. Section 27: Postal services, postal packets and postal operators

        2. Section 28: General authorisation to provide postal services

      3. The universal postal service

        1. Section 29: Duty to secure provision of universal postal service

        2. Section 30: The universal postal service

        3. Section 31: Minimum requirements

        4. Section 32: Section 31: definitions

        5. Section 33: Exceptions to minimum requirements

        6. Section 34: Review of minimum requirements

      4. Universal service providers

        1. Section 35: Designation of universal service providers

        2. Section 36: Designated USP conditions

        3. Section 37: Publication of information about performance

        4. Section 38: USP Access conditions

        5. Section 39: USP accounting conditions

      5. Persons providing services within scope of universal postal service

        1. Section 40: Services within scope of the universal postal service

        2. Section 41: Notification condition

        3. Section 42: General universal service conditions

        4. Section 43: Recovery of administrative charges incurred by OFCOM

      6. Financial support for universal postal service

        1. Section 44: Review of costs of universal service obligations

        2. Section 45: Fairness of bearing burden of universal service obligations

        3. Section 46: Contributions for meeting burden

        4. Section 47: Report on sharing mechanism

      7. Postal operators generally

        1. Section 48: Notification by postal operators

        2. Section 49: Essential conditions

        3. Section 50: General access conditions

        4. Section 51: Consumer protection conditions

        5. Section 52: Provision that may be made by consumer protection conditions

      8. General provisions

        1. Section 53: Imposition, modification or revocation of regulatory conditions

        2. Section 54: Enforcement of regulatory requirements

        3. Section 55: Information

        4. Section 56: General restriction on disclosure of information

      9. Appeals

        1. Section 57: Decisions by OFCOM to impose regulatory conditions, impose penalties etc

        2. Section 58:  Appeals from the CAT

        3. Section 59: Price control decisions

        4. Section 60: section 59 supplementary

      10. Supplementary and consequential provisions

        1. Section 61: Duties in relation to social and environmental matters

        2. Section 62:  UK postage stamps bearing image of Her Majesty

        3. Section 63: Orders, schemes and regulations made by OFCOM

        4. Section 64: Abolition of Postal Services Commission etc

        5. Section 65: Interpretation of Part 3

        6. Section 66: Transitional provisions for Part 3

        7. Section 67: Review of Part 3

    4. Part 4: Special Administration

      1. Summary and background

      2. Postal administration orders

        1. Section 68: Postal administration orders

        2. Section 69: Objective of a postal administration

        3. Section 70:  Applications for postal administration orders

        4. Section 71: Powers of the court

        5. Section 72: Postal administrators

        6. Section 73: Conduct of administration, transfer schemes etc

      3. Restrictions on other insolvency procedures

        1. Section 74: Winding up orders

        2. Section 75: Voluntary winding up

        3. Section 76: Making of ordinary administration orders

        4. Section 77: Administrator appointments by creditors etc

        5. Section 78:  Enforcement of security

      4. Financial support for companies in administration

        1. Section 79: Grants and Loans

        2. Section 80: Indemnities

        3. Section 81: Guarantees where postal administration order is made

      5. Modifications of regulatory conditions etc

        1. Section 82: Regulatory powers exercisable during postal administration

        2. Section 83: Regulatory conditions to secure funding of postal administration order

      6. Supplemental provision of Part 4

        1. Section 84:  Modification of this Part under Enterprise Act 2002

        2. Section 86: Partnerships

        3. Section 87: Northern Ireland

        4. Section 88: Review of Part 4

    5. Part 5: General

      1. Section 89: Orders and regulations made by Ministers of the Crown

      2. Section 90: Minor definitions

      3. Section 91: Minor and consequential amendments

      4. Section 92: Financial Provisions

      5. Section 93: Short title, commencement and extent

    6. Schedules

      1. Schedule 1: Transfer Schemes

      2. Schedule 2: Taxation provisions relating to re-structuring etc

      3. Schedule 3: Access conditions

        1. Part 1 Provision that may be made by access conditions

        2. Part 2 Resolution of access disputes by OFCOM

      4. Schedule 4: Recovery of administrative charges incurred by OFCOM

      5. Schedule 5: Approval of redress schemes

      6. Schedule 6: Imposition, modification or revocation

      7. Schedule 7: Enforcement of regulatory requirements

      8. Schedule 8: Information provisions

        1. Part 1 Requirements to provide information to OFCOM

        2. Part 2 Enforcement

        3. Part 3 Supplementary provisions

      9. Schedule 9: Transitional provisions for Part 3

      10. Schedule 10: Conduct of postal administration

      11. Schedule 11: Postal transfer schemes

      12. Schedule 12: Minor and consequential amendments

  7. Transposition of European Directives

  8. Commencement Date

  9. Hansard

  10. AnnexTransposition Notes for the Postal Services Directive (2008/6/Ec)

  • Explanatory Notes Table of contents

Back to top

Options/Help

Print Options

Close

Explanatory Notes

Text created by the government department responsible for the subject matter of the Act to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Public Acts except Appropriation, Consolidated Fund, Finance and Consolidation Acts.

Close

More Resources

Access essential accompanying documents and information for this legislation item from this tab. Dependent on the legislation item being viewed this may include:

  • the original print PDF of the as enacted version that was used for the print copy
  • lists of changes made by and/or affecting this legislation item
  • confers power and blanket amendment details
  • all formats of all associated documents
  • correction slips
  • links to related legislation and further information resources