Part 3Regulation of postal services
Persons providing services within scope of universal postal service
41Notification 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.