The Postal Services Act 2000 (c.26) is an Act

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 of the Parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

 of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm (s.1), a consumer watchdog

Consumer watchdog

A consumer watchdog is an individual or organization that supports consumer rights; the term may refer to:* Consumer organization* Watchdog journalism* Consumer Watchdog , a private consumer rights advocacy group in Botswana...

, Postwatch (s.2), required a "universal service

Universal service

Universal service is an economic, legal and business term used mostly in regulated industries, referring to the practice of providing a baseline level of services to every resident of a country...

" of post to be provided (ss.3-4) and set up rules for licensing postal services operators (ss.6-41). It also converted the public branch of the postal industry, the Post Office

General Post Office

General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...

, from a statutory corporation

Statutory Corporation

A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...

 to a public limited company

Public limited company

A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....

, wholly owned by the government.

Background

Second Reading of the Bill, and debate, introduced by Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers

Stephen Byers

Stephen John Byers is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for North Tyneside from 1997 to 2010; in the previous parliament, from 1992, he represented Wallsend...

.
Parliamentary Undersecretary Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson

Alan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was...

summed up the Bill before the House divided.

Liberalisation

The Postal Services Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/2107)

The Postal Services (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (
SI 2002/3050), r.8
s.11 Allows PostComm to grant licences that would otherwise contravene s.6(1), the general prohibition on conveying a letter from one place to another. s.7 (amended by the 2002 Regulations) stated that s.6(1) would not be contravened by carrying letters under £1 value.

Regulations

Postal Services Act 2000 (Commencement No. 5) Order 2007 S.I. 2007/1181

Postal Packets (Revenue and Customs) Regulations 2007 S.I. 2007/2195