How we're regulated

The Postal Services Act 2011 established Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industry, as the regulator of postal service providers in the UK from 1 October 2011.

Under the Act, Ofcom’s primary duty is to secure the provision of the universal postal service including having regard to its financial sustainability. 

The Act provides for the introduction of a regulatory framework based on “general authorisations” to replace the licensing regime which was introduced under the Postal Services Act 2000.  There were 59 UK holders of postal operator licences under the old arrangements, including Royal Mail Group, who have become regulated postal operators.  Ofcom have designated Royal Mail as the Universal Service Provider, which requires us to provide a Universal Postal Service at a uniform price throughout the UK.  As such Royal Mail is subject to additional conditions such as meeting service standards and limitations in the prices we can charge our customers.

This section of our website contains a copy of the Postal Services Act 2011 and the current regulatory conditions. These conditions are, for the most part, the same as the previous licence conditions.  We expect Ofcom to review these in December 2011.