The Postal Services (Universal Postal Service) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2025

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order revokes and replaces the Postal Services (Universal Postal Service) (Amendment) Order 2025 (S.I. 2025/854) (which did not include the coming into force date in article 1).

This Order amends the Postal Services (Universal Postal Service) Order 2012 (S.I. 2012/936) (the “principal Order”), as amended by the Postal Services (Universal Postal Service) (Amendment) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/3108).

OFCOM’s assessment of the extent to which the market for the provision of postal services in the United Kingdom is meeting the reasonable needs of the users of those services, carried out under section 30(3) of the Postal Services Act 2011, is available to the public from OFCOM’s website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk or from the OFCOM library at Riverside House, 2A Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA (Tel: [phone]).

Article 3 of this Order updates certain definitions to reflect the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. It also adds new definitions which are relevant to calculating routing times under article 3 of the principal Order and to the delivery and collection obligations in articles 6 and 7 respectively of the principal Order.

Article 4 of this Order amends the definition of “working day” for the purpose of calculating routing times under article 3 of the principal Order. For priority and other letters and other postal packets, “working day” excludes Sundays and public holidays in the place of collection or delivery of the relevant postal packet. For standard letters, “working day” excludes Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in the place of collection or delivery of the relevant letter.

Article 5 amends the delivery service in article 6 of the principal Order so that there is to be at least one delivery of priority and other letters every Monday to Saturday, in accordance with requirement 1 of section 31 of the Postal Services Act 2011. Standard letters are to be delivered on any day from Monday to Friday.

Article 6 amends the collection service in article 7 of the principal Order so that there is to be at least one collection of priority and other letters every Monday to Saturday, in accordance with requirement 2 of section 31 of the Postal Services Act 2011. There is also to be at least one collection of standard letters and other postal packets every Monday to Friday.

Articles 7 and 8 amend the description of the services in paragraphs 6 and 6A of Schedule 1 to the principal Order to reflect the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

A regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs to business is available to the public from OFCOM’s website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk or from the OFCOM library at Riverside House, 2A Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA (Tel: [phone]).