UK Postcomm doubles fees to consultants as costs hit pounds 9m

THE costs of running postal regulator Postcomm have soared from pounds 6.5m to pounds 9.04m in the last year, the organisation’s annual report has revealed.

A spokesman said yesterday that the increased cost was due to employing larger numbers of consultants as well as an increase in staff numbers.

However, Postcomm, which makes decisions such as whether Royal Mail can put up the price of stamps, spent less money than it had expected because of the delay of some expected consultations.

The spokesman said that Postcomm expects to spend the same amount next year although it hopes to employ fewer consultants and more staff. “The sort of people we need are very specialist.” It spent over pounds 5m on consultants last year compared with just over pounds 2m the year before.

Royal Mail pays for much of the cost of running its regulator, although as other firms begin to use licences for delivering the mail they will also contribute to the running costs. Royal Mail also has to provide more than pounds 10m a year of funding for Postwatch, the watchdog that allows customers to complain when mail goes awry.

Among decisions this year by Postcomm, which is now run by Nigel Stapleton, was denying Royal Mail the right not to carry firearms through the post. Royal Mail wanted firearms removed from the list of things it has to carry, along with medicines and filth, but Postcomm said that there was insufficient evidence that posting guns and replica guns was causing postal delays.

Postcomm has also issued licences for other mail providers to carry mail. It was set up to ensure that, when the Royal Mail’s monopoly on post costing less than pounds 1 to send was removed, the Universal Service Obligation is maintained. This is Royal Mail’s obligation to carry mail anywhere in the country for the same price.