Draft Order laid before Parliament under section 122(12) of the Postal Services Act 2000 for approval by resolution of each House of Parliament.

2002 No.

POSTAL SERVICES

The Postal Services Act 2000 (Modification of Section 7) Order 2002

Made

Coming into force

Whereas the Postal Services Commission has made a recommendation in accordance with section 8(2) of the Postal Services Act 20001 that section 7 of that Act should be modified;

And whereas a draft of this Order has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament in accordance with section 122(12) of that Act;

Now, therefore, the Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred upon her by section 8 of that Act, hereby makes the following Order:

Citation and commencement1

This Order may be cited as the Postal Services Act 2000 (Modification of Section 7) Order 2002 and shall come into force on the day after the day on which it is made.

Modification of section 72

1

Section 7 of the Postal Services Act 2000 is amended as follows.

2

In subsection (2)(d), after the words “United Kingdom” are inserted the words “, and the collection of letters for that purpose”.

3

In subsection (3) for the words “(a) to (g)”, are substituted the words “(a) to (c) and (e) to (g)”.

Minister of State for E-Commerce & CompetitivenessDepartment of Trade & Industry

(This note is not part of the Order)

Section 6 of the Postal Services Act 2000 (“the Act”) prevents any person from conveying a letter from one place to another unless that person holds a licence authorising that conveyance or the person is acting as an employee or agent of a person so authorised. Section 7 of the Act sets out exceptions to this, and section 8 of the Act gives the Secretary of State the power to modify section 7. The Secretary of State may only modify section 7 where the Postal Services Commission has recommended that this should happen.

Section 7(2)(d) of the Act provides that a licence is not required for the conveyance of an overseas letter out of the United Kingdom, but section 7 does not allow a person to make a collection of letters for that purpose.

The Postal Services Commission has recommended that this restriction should be removed. This Order achieves that effect by amending sections 7(2) and (3) of the Act. A licence will therefore no longer be required to do this.