Provision of universal postal service

4.—(1) For subsection (1) of section 59 of the 1981 Act (general duty of the Post Office) there shall be substituted the following subsections–

“(1) It shall be the duty of the Post Office (consistently with any directions given to it under the provisions of Part III of the 1969 Act or this Part) so to exercise its powers as to provide a universal postal service throughout the United Kingdom, except in so far as–

(a) any part of such a service is provided by other persons; or

(b) the provision of any part of such a service is, in its opinion, impracticable or not reasonably practicable.

(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1), a universal postal service is provided if–

(a) at least one delivery of postal packets is made every working day to each postal address in the United Kingdom;

(b) at least one collection of postal packets is made every working day from each collection point designated by the Post Office;

(c) postal services for the collection, sorting, transport and delivery of postal packets–

(i) whose weight does not exceed 20 kilograms; and

(ii) whose dimensions fall within the permitted limits, are provided at affordable prices determined in accordance with a public tariff which is uniform throughout the United Kingdom; and

(d) a registered post service is provided at such prices.”

(2) For subsection (3) of that section there shall be substituted the following subsection–

“(3) Subsection (1) shall not be taken to preclude the Post Office from–

(a) interrupting, suspending or restricting, in cases of emergency, any service provided by it; or

(b) concluding with customers individual agreements as to prices.”

(3) After subsection (5) of that section there shall be inserted the following subsection–

“(6) In this section–

• “letter” has the same meaning as in section 66;

• “postal address” means any address recognised by the Post Office as being an identifiable point for the delivery of postal packets;

• “permitted limits”, in relation to the dimensions of a postal packet, means the minimum and maximum dimensions laid down in the Universal Postal Union Convention and the Agreement concerning Postal Parcels adopted by the Universal Postal Union;

• “postal packet” means a letter, parcel, packet or other article transmissible by post;

• “public holiday” means Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(1) in any part of the United Kingdom;

• “registered post service” means a service which provides for the registration of postal packets and for the payment of compensation for any loss or damage;

• “working day” means–

  (a)

  in relation to the collection and delivery of letters, any day which is not a Sunday or a public holiday;

  (b)

  in relation to the collection and delivery of postal packets other than letters, any day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday.”

(1)

1971 c. 80.