Postcomm publishes new work plan

UK-regulator Postcomm has published for consultation its expected work plan for the next two years. The Forward Work Plan outlines Postcomm’s proposed activities from now until April 2012, looking at how it regulates the postal industry within the scope of its powers and duties. The formal consultation period will close on March 28, 2010.

Chief executive Tim Brown said: “Our primary goal is to protect the universal service and the interests of customers. We want to encourage Royal Mail and other operators to innovate and become more efficient in meeting customers’ changing needs.”

Postcomm will be seeking to provide a stable regulatory environment that achieves the following key objectives:

– Ensures the future of the universal postal service and protects the interests of customers

– Allows freedom for Royal Mail and its competitors to innovate and become more efficient in meeting customers’ changing needs

– Has flexibility and resilience so that it can be applied within any future statutory framework

The Forward Work Plan aims to introduce a new regulatory framework in April 2012. This timetable is subject to consultation and the agreement of Royal Mail to the necessary licence changes. It will be designed to last for a number of years to provide consistency and, to the maximum extent possible, regulatory certainty and stability.

Some changes to the current regulatory framework could, however, be in place by April 2011. Its work will initially concentrate on creating the right conditions and ensuring there are the right safeguards for the longer term. It will deregulate where there is sufficient evidence and the necessary safeguards are in place.

Postcomm’s work over the next two years will cover three areas:

• Protecting the universal service: Assessing customers’ needs from a universal service, covering issues such as the range of services provided, quality of service and whether the universal service is affordable for customers

• Analysis of markets: Investigating further the economic markets in which Royal Mail operates, assessing market power and identifying where the markets fails to protect the interests of customers

• Regulatory safeguards: Developing the necessary protections for customers and other operators. This will include a review of the way Royal Mail provides cost and revenue information; considering the nature of the controls on Royal Mail’s pricing and the scope of them in future; and reviewing the “Access”1 environment to give Royal Mail more freedom where appropriate in the upstream bulk mail postal market while safeguarding competition to give customers choice

Since the postponement of the Postal Services Bill last summer, it has been talking with a wide range of customers, trade bodies, operators (including Royal Mail) and other interested parties about the future direction regulation now needs to take.