(1)In section 7(2) of the [1969 c. 48.] Post Office Act 1969 (powers of the Post Office) after paragraph (r) there shall be inserted—
“(s)to enter into any form of financial transaction which it considers to be expedient and which does not fall within any of the preceding paragraphs;”.
(2)After section 37(1) of that Act (loans by the Secretary of State to the Post Office) there shall be inserted—
“(1A)The Secretary of State may, with the approval of the Treasury, make loans to any subsidiary of the Post Office.”
(3)After section 37(2) of that Act there shall be inserted—
“(2A)The power of the Secretary of State to make loans under this section includes power to make loans in currencies other than sterling.”
(4)After section 37(3) of that Act (power to issue sums out of the National Loans Fund) there shall be inserted—
“(3A)Such sums may be issued in sterling or, where the loan is to be in a currency other than sterling, in that currency or in sterling.”
(5)In section 73 of the [1981 c. 38.] British Telecommunications Act 1981 (borrowing powers of the Post Office etc), in subsection (1)(a) and (2)(a), after “sterling” there shall, in each case, be inserted “or a currency other than sterling”.
(6)In section 74(2) of that Act (limit of indebtedness of the Post Office and its subsidiaries)—
(a)after sub-paragraph (i) there shall be inserted—
“(ia)money borrowed by any other subsidiary of the Post Office under section 37(1A) of the 1969 Act;”,
(b)for “£1,200 million” there shall be substituted “£5,000 million”, and
(c)the words “, not exceeding £1,700 million,” shall be repealed.
(7)After section 74(4) of that Act there shall be inserted—
“(4A)For the purposes of this section equivalents in sterling shall be calculated as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.”
(1)The owner for the time being of the Postcode Address File shall—
(a)maintain the File, and
(b)make the File available to any person who wishes to use it on such terms as are reasonable.
(2)Compliance with subsection (1) shall be enforceable by civil proceedings brought by the Commission for an injunction or for interdict or for any other appropriate relief or remedy.
(3)In this section—
“the Postcode Address File” means—
the collection of relevant information which, immediately before the coming into force of this section, was owned by the Post Office, or
that collection as it is from time to time revised, and
“relevant information” means postcodes in the United Kingdom which may be used to facilitate the identification of delivery points for the purpose of providing postal services.
(4)The terms which may be imposed under subsection (1)(b) include terms as to the payment of such fee (if any) as the owner considers appropriate.
(1)The Secretary of State may by order vest in the Post Office company such records of the department of the Postmaster General as—
(a)belong to Her Majesty in right of Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, and
(b)are specified in or described by the order.
(2)The Secretary of State may give such directions to the Post Office company as he considers appropriate for ensuring that any records so transferred to the Post Office company are available to the Crown for inspection and copying.
(1)On such day as the Secretary of State may by order appoint (“the relevant day”), all the property, rights and liabilities to which the Post Office Users' National Council was entitled or subject immediately before that day shall become by virtue of this section property, rights and liabilities of the Council.
(2)An order made under subsection (1) may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order at any time before any property, rights or liabilities of the Post Office Users' National Council vest in the Council by virtue of this section.
(3)Paragraphs 1 and 7 of Schedule 3 apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of section 62 with such modifications as are necessary (including the substitution for references to the Post Office and the Post Office company of references to the Post Office Users' National Council and the Council respectively).
(4)Where a person employed in the civil service of the state and seconded to the Post Office Users' National Council or a Country Council immediately before the relevant day becomes an employee of the Council on that day, his period of employment in the civil service of the state (including any part of that period spent otherwise than on secondment) counts as a period of employment with the Council for the purposes of the [1996 c. 18.] Employment Rights Act 1996 (and the change of employer does not affect the continuity of the period of employment for those purposes).
(5)Where a person who—
(a)is employed in the civil service of the state and is seconded to the Council, and
(b)immediately before his secondment to the Council was seconded to the Post Office Users' National Council or a Country Council,
becomes an employee of the Council, his period of employment in the civil service of the state (including any part of that period spent otherwise than on secondment) counts as a period of employment with the Council for the purposes of the [1996 c. 18.] Employment Rights Act 1996 (and the change of employer does not affect the continuity of the period of employment for those purposes).
(6)In this section “Country Council” means the Post Office Users' Council for Scotland, the Post Office Users' Council for Wales or the Post Office Users' Council for Northern Ireland.
Schedule 7 (which makes provision about disclosure of information) shall have effect.