UK Royal Mail demands ACAS disputes body
Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton is calling for an ACAS-style arbitration service to settle disputes between the postal operator and watchdog Postcomm. At the moment they can only be settled through a Judicial Review.
Leighton, who was due to appear before a House of Lords’ Select Committee hearing this week, but failed to show up, is already threatening to take Postcomm to court over final access pricing (PM last week).
His representatives, Stephen Agar and John Duncan, who both work on regulatory strategy at Royal Mail, argued to the committee on The Accountability of Regulators to Citizens & Parliament that there needs to be a swift and efficient way of dealing with problems.
One insider says: “The idea is a sound one, if only because Postcomm and Royal Mail don’t seem to be able to act as grown-ups.
“They are continually at loggerheads, and this means we are not benefiting from competition in the market.
“Whether Postcomm would accept it, though, is another matter, because it could be seen as undermining its position.”
Last week, it emerged that Leighton’s threat to challenge the 11.88p final access price has forced Deutsche Post Mail Services (DPMS) to stall its entry into the UK market.
DPMS marketing director Andy Barrett says: “A grenade has been lobbed into the whole negotiation.” But he stresses: “It is our intention to pursue liberalised markets, and the UK is one of the largest in Europe. It is too big to just throw down our tools at the first challenge.”
